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Power cut hits north of Scotland Power restored to north of Scotland
(about 9 hours later)
A severe power cut has left much of northern Scotland without electricity. Electricity has been restored to customers after a widespread power cut affected much of northern Scotland.
The area affected stretched from Fort William in the Highlands through Moray and Caithness to Orkney and Shetland. The black-out stretched from Fort William in the Highlands through Moray and Caithness to Orkney and Shetland.
The Western Isles and Skye were also said to be among the areas hit by the outage, which is understood to have happened at about 20:30. The Western Isles and Skye were also thought to be among the areas hit by the outage, which started at about 20:30 on Wednesday.
It is thought almost 200,000 properties were affected at the height of the disruption. More than 200,000 properties were affected at the height of the disruption.
Electricity is reported to have now been restored in areas including Inverness and parts of the Western and Northern Isles. Some rail services to and from Inverness were delayed.
Some rail services to and from Inverness have been delayed. A statement on the Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution website said: "Our contingency procedures worked effectively and we were able to restore power to all customers in around three hours.
An update on the official Scottish Hydro Power Distribution twitter feed at about 22:20 said power had been restored to 100,000 customers, but some 77,000 remained without electricity. "Our immediate priority was to ensure all customers were back on supply as quickly and safely as possible; having achieved that, we will now investigate the cause of the problem.
A statement released by the firm on Wednesday evening said: "We are currently experiencing a major transmission network fault affecting the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland. "We would like to thank any affected customers for their patience while we worked to restore power."
"Our engineers are being mobilised to primary locations to begin the restoration of supplies. 'Serious power outage'
"The nature of the fault is incredibly severe and at this time we are unable to confirm a restoration time. Alex Salmond chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government Resilience Committee (SGoRR), which is activated in the event of widespread or complex emergencies.
"We apologise for any inconvenience caused." A Scottish government spokesman said: "There has been a serious power outage that affected large parts of the north of Scotland this evening.
Any customers affected by loss of supply should call Scottish and Southern Energy power distribution on 0800 300 999. "First Minister Alex Salmond, in Stornoway following (Wednesday's) Scottish government cabinet meeting, chaired a SGoRR meeting where he was updated on the network operator's progress in restoring power to affected homes."
The Highlands and Islands Local Resilience Partnership (HILRP) said "in the region of" 205,000 homes were affected at the peak of the disruption.
HILRP said the power company informed it that all power had been restored by 00:30.