THOUSANDS of Scots could be set to receive nearly £1000 in compensation this winter if their homes have been affected by the disastrous power cuts.
The Scottish Government declared a major incident for Shetland on Tuesday after significant snowfall cased thousands of residents to be left without power on Monday evening.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) engineers faced severe weather as they worked to restore the power to nearly 6000 homes throughout the week.
Houses in Voe, Brae, Yell and the West Mainland were still left powerless on the days coming up to the weekend.
In an update this morning, SSEN teams confirmed that they have made significant progress on the situation, with engineers working tirelessly to restore supplies across the islands.
As of 9.30am on Sunday, only 24 properties remained without supply from the initial storm in Vementry, Grobsness, Brechin and Watsness.
However, 94 properties in Freester, Eswick and Vardasta, which were originally reconnected on Thursday, are currently without supply since yesterday evening due to a secondary fault.
A 160-strong team is now focused on reconnecting these properties to the network.
These faults are located in areas experiencing the worst of the damage caused by line icing, where snow and ice accumulated on large sections of power line, bringing down overhead lines and breaking wooden electricity poles.
SSEN engineers have said that they are confident that all properties will have their power restored today and are in contact with customers to keep them updated.
And those impacted by the power cuts have been told they will be paid compensation once power has been restored.
For power interruptions over 48 hours, customers will receive £70, with a further £70 for every subsequent 12-hour period they were off supply.
With power set to be finally reconnected today to the final properties, it means some of the thousands left without power could be paid as much as £910.
Those affected will not need to contact the firm and the process will be automatic.
They added that payments will be processed as quickly as possible in the weeks after the event.
Mark Macdonald, Head of Region at SSEN Distribution, said:
“With additional crews on Shetland to bolster our army of engineers, we continue to make excellent progress ahead of our forecasts, with 24 only properties remaining without supply from the initial storm.
“Our teams will continue to work throughout the day to push on with the final restoration effort.
“Barring no unforeseen challenges, we’re confident we can restore power to all remaining properties this afternoon.
“We understand the challenges communities are facing after days without power and would like to thank Shetland Islands Council, our resilience partners and local communities for their ongoing support in coordinating warm hubs for local residents.
“We’re proactively calling all customers without power to check on their welfare and would urge anyone who needs support to call us on 105.”
Full details can be found on the SSEN website.