Electricity power cut hits Western Isles 22/12/11
Thousands of islanders are still without electricity this evening after a major power cut blacked out the entire Western Isles. The failure in the electricity supply also affected mobile phone reception.
All of Skye was also knocked out by the fault caused by a breakdown on the high voltage network on the mainland.
The lights went out around 12.30pm but power was resorted to Stornoway about ah hour later after the diesel power station at Battery Point in Stornoway was fired up.
Hydro engineers are repairing the fault and hope to get all properties back on line later tonight. Initial hopes to restore all supplies by 2.30pm were quickly dashed as homes were left in darkness for many hours.
Uist properties got back online in the afternoon while mobile generators were brought in to get temporary electricity supplies for homes in Lewis and Harris last night.
Some 6,000 properties were in blackness at teatime with nearly 2000 homes in the northern district of Skye the last to be reconnected last night.
Utility firm Scottish and Southern Energy warned islanders that the network was operating on reduced capacity. It urged householders to conserve energy and limit electricity use to protect essential supplies.
People were asked to switch off storage heaters and washing machines and not unnecessarily use other electrical appliances.