LDRSPower cuts across Orkney and Caithness were caused by a “network fault”, an energy provider said on Thursday amid “wild” speculation linking the cause to a Russian ship.
Households in the affected areas reported the power outages shortly after 7pm on Wednesday.
Power was restored to areas across the county over the following few hours, although a few more short power outages were reported.
Mobile phone signal was also lost for some providers.
SSEN said it was due to a “network fault” but investigations are continuing.
An SSEN spokesperson said: “Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks would like to thank customers in Orkney and parts of Caithness for their patience and understanding while we responded to a network fault last night.
“Engineers responded promptly to reconfigure the network and restored supplies to affected customers in stages, with the final homes reconnected just before midnight.”
Whilst engineers worked to address faults on the network, Kirkwall Power Station was brought online to help the situation for a short period.
The power station returned to standby mode by midnight.
The vice-chairman of the Orkney local Emergency Coordination Group (OLECG), Kenny MacPherson, said it was “heartening” to see people come together across social media, offering reassurance and support.
Council brands linking power cut to Russian ship as ‘wild speculation’
Some on social media were concerned that the power cut had something to do with news of a Russian ship, the Yantar, recently spotted in Northern Scotland.
While Russia said the ship is an oceanic research vessel, the UK’s defence chiefs said it is a spy ship.
There have been consistent concerns about Russian ships mapping undersea cables in the UK.
The Ministry of Defence has advised that the Yantar was in the UK Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) waters between 5 and 11 November.
At no point did it come so close as to enter the UK’s Territorial Waters. It is now operating back outside the EEZ.
Orkney Islands Council was keen to “nip this is in the bud” on social media.
The local authority said there was “no truth at all” in the Russian ship being involved with the power cut.
Addressing comments on Facebook, a council spokesperson called any link to the Yantar “wild speculation”.
However, concerns remain about the Northern Isles’ vulnerability to interference.
Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael has concerns about Russian ships mapping cables in UK waters – although his concerns involve telecommunications cables rather than power.
Just hours before yesterday’s power-cut, Carmichael wrote to the UK’s Defence Secretary asking for more details on the location and activities of the Russian ship.
The MP said it was “reasonable” to interpret the ship’s location of “the north of Scotland” as being within the area of the Northern Isles.
In his letter, Carmichael states that the movement and activities around sub-sea cables is of particular interest to those in the islands given “disruptions to telecommunications in recent months”.
He said there are “renewed concerns about resilience” in the isles’ communities.
Carmichael is due to hold a summit on telecommunications at the end of this week.
LDRSEast Mainland Young Farmers keep on rolling despite outage
While homes across the affected areas had to light some candles, disruption has been limited.
Kirkwall Airport reported that they suffered no disruption last night.
Meanwhile, The Balfour Hospital says it also maintained “resilience” through the power cut.
This was according to Stephen Brown, chief officer of Orkney Health and Care and the executive on call.
One of Orkney’s Young Farmers Clubs didn’t even stop play in their bowls tournament for the outage.
The East Mainland Young Farmers Club continued the competition with what little light they could get, including the torches on their smartphones.
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