Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Official Report 863KB pdf

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Topical Question Time

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Electricity Power Cut (Cause)

1. To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the cause of the electricity power cut which affected people in the north of Scotland on 17 April 2014. (S4T-00667)

Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution discovered a faulty electronic relay at its Knocknagael substation, which is near Inverness. It is believed that the relay malfunctioned just before the outage last Wednesday. Circuit breakers identified a potential fault on the main network and opened to protect the systems that supply the north and the west of the country from more protracted and significant damage. SSEPD has reviewed the events and modified systems and it is confident that that will prevent a recurrence of the same problem affecting its wider network. I will place in the Scottish Parliament information centre a more detailed account of the actions that the Scottish Government and supporting authorities took during the loss of power on 16 April.

I thank the cabinet secretary for that explanation, which is the first that we have had in any detail. I look forward to reading the document that will be placed in SPICe. Will he arrange for SSE to brief MSPs who represent affected areas on the grid control system for the north of Scotland, so that we can reassure our constituents that the system is resilient and ready to serve today’s essential electronic systems?

I am happy to convey that point to SSE. In my dealings with the company in my constituency, I have always found it willing and able to provide substantial information about such issues and to provide such reassurance.

As for the wider question of the grid system’s capability and effectiveness, it is clear that the grid’s capability is undergoing a major enhancement—for example, the new Beauly to Denny power line, which is under development, is a substantial investment in ensuring that we have grid capability and capacity that will prove resilient for many years. The existing grid network is carrying heavy loads, given the increased generating capacity in the north and the west. The installation of new grids, such as Beauly to Denny, will be a significant factor in ensuring resilience in the years to come.

I thank the cabinet secretary for that detailed answer. The grid system is important to us in the north, as it is everywhere.

After a widespread power outage, what steps does SSE take to ensure that customers such as mobile phone service providers can reboot quickly? As the cabinet secretary is well aware from his visit to Ullapool on 18 April, no mobile phone signals were available in that area until well into the afternoon following the outage. Many other systems were also affected. Can we find ways of clarifying the position for MSPs in the affected areas?

Mr Gibson makes an important point. Re-establishing power networks after an outage is a high priority for Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution. The incident took place at 20:36 and all connections were back up and running by 1 o’clock the following morning. Most were reconnected by 23:30, but there were further problems in the Orkney area, which had a prolonged outage until about 1 o’clock in the morning.

There were further implications for other networks, such as mobile phone networks—as Mr Gibson said, they were affected. Close working between grid operators and individual suppliers is a priority. The First Minister convened a number of telephone conversations with resilience officials in the Scottish Government on the Wednesday evening and on the Thursday to ensure that all connectivity activity was taking place. Swift action was taken on the Wednesday evening to re-establish connections, but there were implications for other users, which must have just as prompt attention, to ensure that other services that have been disrupted by power outages are put back in place.

The mass power outage that affected 200,000 homes throughout the Highlands and Islands last week was unusual and troubling. I am concerned about the possible effects on business and on elderly and vulnerable individuals in my region. Has the cabinet secretary or any of his colleagues received comprehensive statistics from the police, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and health boards to determine whether there was an increase in the number of domestic and workplace accidents during the period in which the power was off?

I have no information of that type, but I assure Mr Stewart that all relevant emergency agencies were involved in the calls that the First Minister convened. The priority of such discussions is twofold: to press to ensure that services and supplies are restored at the earliest possible opportunity; and to identify any areas of vulnerability that members of the public may experience. Health boards, the police and local authorities are all involved in those calls to ensure that any possible vulnerability is identified. The authorities are, obviously, aware of where such circumstances are more likely to occur. In some affected parts of the Highlands and Islands, standby generating capacity was operated swiftly to ensure that services were re-established as quickly as possible in the circumstances.

The cabinet secretary will be aware that some individuals with engineering experience have suggested that overreliance on wind turbines may have contributed to grid instability. I ask that he not deny that straight away but take the opportunity to inquire whether it could have been a contributing factor.

I am absolutely certain that it was not a contributing factor. Mr Johnstone is free to ask whatever questions he wishes, but I would think that what I said to the Parliament in my original answer—that Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution discovered a faulty electronic relay at its Knocknagael substation, which is near Inverness—would have been enough reassurance for him. That is an explanation of what originated the problem and what had to be addressed. I can say emphatically to Mr Johnstone that, engineering experience or no engineering experience, the comments that we have heard about the involvement of wind turbines are utterly misplaced in the analysis of the incident.

I thank the cabinet secretary for outlining the detail of what lay behind the problems and for his response to Alex Johnstone. The cabinet secretary is right to say that there were more protracted delays in restoring power in my constituency. He provided the Parliament with reassurance that there should be no recurrence of the incident, but have steps been taken specifically in relation to Orkney to ensure that there is not?

I am sure that Mr McArthur will appreciate that the issue that affected the reconnection in Orkney was subsequent to the original fault in the switching system. It prolonged the problem by about 90 minutes, which added to the inconvenience for members of the public in the Orkney community.

Over the Easter weekend, SSE looked carefully at the circumstances that led to the incident. It is alert to the necessity to tackle any power outages and minimise any inconvenience to members of the public. That will remain its priority in moving forward.

The points that Mr McArthur raises are important for his constituents and I assure him that those factors will be examined closely in identifying what steps can be taken to strengthen the existing arrangements to minimise such difficulties.

When I visited the SSE grid control centre in Perth just after the Christmas break, I saw at first hand the depth of the information and the sophistication of the systems that are available to identify where outages are taking place throughout the country. Tackling outages is clearly a priority for SSE.

I know that SSE and social work departments have lists of vulnerable people who might be affected by power outages. Is that information shared, and are checks carried out on those people during occurrences such as the one that we are discussing?

That is really the point that I was making to Mr Stewart in my earlier answer. The First Minister instructed the resilience operation to take place on that Wednesday evening. Local authorities and other agencies were already undertaking activity in advance of the activation of the resilience arrangements, as a matter of routine practice, to deal with exactly the circumstances that Rhoda Grant has highlighted in relation to vulnerable individuals. For example, we had information about a member of the public who required access to oxygen services in their home, which is made difficult if there is a power outage. The emergency services were able to provide the support that is required by that individual in those circumstances.

The information about vulnerable individuals is held by local authorities and emergency services. Whenever such a circumstance arises, those plans, which are regularly exercised, all kick into action. The type of resilience monitoring arrangements that the Government puts in place are to provide reassurance that all necessary steps are being taken to ensure that any vulnerable individuals are being supported, as I explained to Mr Stewart, and that all steps are being taken to reactivate services, where that requires to be undertaken.