Did power cut misery come from bird strike?
ENGINEERS are investigating whether a devastating blackout that left 250,000 homes without electricity was caused by birds striking overhead power lines.
A power surge plunged northern Scotland into darkness on Wednesday night and left thousands of elderly or vulnerable residents at risk.
Electricity was eventually restored to all homes by early yesterday but SSE engineers remain baffled about the cause of the fault.
An overhead inspection of the line south of Inverness failed to identify the problem and it will now be inspected from the ground.
Experts are considering the possibility of a lightning strike or that the line may have been struck by a flock of migrating birds.
Species, particularly geese, are returning to Scotland after winter and thousands of geese are in the area where the fault happened. The problem area has been narrowed to a 50-mile section running from Moray to Inverness.
SSE said a major transmission network fault l i nking i nto the National Grid was to blame.
The power cut began at 8.30pm and affected an area stretching from Fort William in Invernessshire up through Tain, Easter Ross, and Thurso, Caithness, to Orkney and the Shetland Islands.
The blackout caused chaos and there were major concerns for the elderly, thousands of whom were left without heat or light. Homes and businesses on the Western Isles and Skye were also affected.
At the height of the power cut, the emergency services were put on high alert, while First Minister Alex Salmond chaired a special meeting of the Cabinet to discuss the situation.
Plans were put in place to move elderly and vulnerable residents if the blackout continued. A spokes- man for the Highlands and Islands Local Resilience Partnership (HILRP) said: ‘We convened to discuss contingency plans were the power outages to continue for a significant length of time.
‘These plans were focused on the elderly and vulnerable members of the public and the provision of emergency services.’
A Police Scotland spokesman based in Inverness said the force had been inundated by calls from terrified older residents.
Several hours after the start of the blackout, electricity supplies were beginning to trickle through. Homes in Inverness had power restored, although some rail services to and from the city were said to have been delayed or disrupted.
At 10.30pm, 77,000 customers were still without power, but just after midnight power was restored to all affected homes. Dozens of engineers will today patrol the line to identify the fault. A spokesman for SSE said: ‘We apologise to affected customers.
‘Our teams continue to work on the technical analysis required to identify the cause of this highly unusual fault. The investigation has been narrowed down to an overhead transmission line between Blackhillock and Knocknagael.’