Caithness windfarm fault behind Orkney blackout, confirm SSEN

Orkney was plunged into darkness last week as a result of a fault at a Caithness windfarm, SSEN has confirmed.

The energy company says it is continuing to investigate the reasons for the blackout, which affected every home on the mains grid, last Wednesday evening.

Power and connectivity services went down shortly after 7pm before power was restored over the next few hours — punctuated by occasional shorter outages during this time.

In an update to The Orcadian, an SSEN spokesperson said their investigation focused on the “network protection system, which is automated technology that ensures the safe and reliable operation of the wider network should a localised fault occur.”

“On Wednesday evening, an issue developed on one of the windfarms connected to [the] network in Caithness,” the spokesperson said.

“This fault occurred relatively close to a substation; protection systems there did not operate as expected, and this resulted in a more widespread outage.

“Steps have been taken swiftly to address what caused this unintended sequence of events.

“We’d like to apologise to customers for this outage and also stress that there was no direct danger to public safety.

“Furthermore, we have no ongoing concerns regarding network security or operation arising from this incident.”