Power firm apologises over Islay disruption
ISLAY residents faced disruption on Tuesday as power surges left island homes and businesses with an interrupted power supply for hours.
A spokesperson from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSE) explained: ‘Around 190 customers in and around the Portnahaven area of Islay were affected by a fault that saw their electricity supply going off and on again for a short period.
‘These brief interruptions were due to Scottish and Southern Electricity Network’s auto-reclose system which is designed in such a way that if it detects a fault, it will turn itself off, then carry out a self-check.
‘If the fault has rectified itself, the power will automatically come back on. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks would like to apologise to its customers for any inconvenience.’
Portnahaven postmaster Alastair Redman contacted the Advertiser to point out the disruption to his business: ‘While our electrical supply has improved dramatically since the spate of power cuts and surges in 2012, the people of Islay are still blighted with a plague of power surges.
Power cuts
‘On Tuesday January 3, Islay had a total of 13 power cuts and surges from just before 7am to 12pm.’
‘To their credit SSE was very quick to respond to complaints and I would like to thank local front-line SSE workers for fixing the problem.’