Caithness householders endure power cut

Monday’s power supply failure affected shops and pubs, as well as traffic lights and bank cash machines.

HIGH winds left most of Caithness and other areas of the Highlands without electricity for around an hour-and-a-half on Monday night.

The main supplier to the Far North, Scottish Hydro Electric, said the power cut was due to a fault on its transmission network caused by extreme weather conditions.

A spokeswoman today (Tuesday) said: “The incident was part of a larger fault that affected most of the North from Beauly upwards. All the supplies were restored to that area very quickly, however, we have just under 20,000 supplies still off in Scotland in our distribution network that we are still working on.”

Everything from traffic lights to bank ATMs were off and many shops, supermarkets and pubs were forced to close early as a result of the power failure.

Northern Constabulary said there had been no major incidents reported in Caithness in connection with the power cut and all roads in the area were open.

See Wednesday’s Caithness Courier for the full story.