MORE resilience should be built into power networks to help prevent devastation caused by weather events like Storm Arwen, a leading academic has said.
Modern technology that provides better data could be used to review the entire system in order to strengthen vulnerable points, according to Professor Keith Bell of the University of Strathclyde.
His comments came as regulator Ofgem said it would review the power companies’ response to the outages, which left tens of thousands of people without power for up to a week during some of the coldest nights of the year so far.
Speaking to the Sunday National, Professor Bell said mobile phone networks should also ensure their masts can cope in the event of a power cut.
READ MORE: SSEN makes final push to restore power to hundreds of Scottish homes
With many people unable to access help due to a weak or non-existent phone signal and no WiFi, he suggested there could be better “societal resistance” where there are recognised places of refuge within communities and better knowledge of the location of vulnerable people, as well as effective and well-maintained backup for places like hospitals.
Professor Bell said: “There are really essential services across society who need to be aware that there is always a possibility of losing the electricity supply.
“We need societal resilience because there is never going to be a perfectly reliable electricity network.
“One question that should be asked is about masts for the mobile phone network and whether they have a backup supply of electricity. They are vulnerable to losing electricity and are supposed to have batteries in them but do those batteries last?”
While a strategic review of the power network was carried out after Hurricane Stephen in 1998 and vulnerable points were strengthened, Professor Bell pointed out that technology had improved since then and could be used for another review.
“Places that would have been sheltered in previous storms would have been exposed in this one, as this time the wind was more northerly whereas before the winds would have been southwesterly,” he said.
“We now have better access to data on where woodland is, where potential debris might be coming from and the kinds of weather patterns, so we could relate that to which routes the networks are taking and look again at prioritising which bits of the network would seem to be worthwhile strengthening.”
The full scale and cost of the damage caused by the storm, which killed three people across the UK including 35-year-old David Lapage in Aberdeenshire, is still being assessed, but estimates already run into millions of pounds.
THE public has been warned to avoid forest walks because of the continuing threat of part-fallen trees.
Clearing the damage could take months, according to Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS).
FLS chief executive Simon Hodgson said: “The high winds that in some coastal areas reached 100mph have blown down a number of trees at many of our forests, blocking trails and forest roads and causing other damage.
“The combination of windblown trees and icy conditions is hazardous but there is also the risk posed by hanging trees – those that have been blown over but have been caught on standing trees. These can be highly unstable and can fall with little or no warning. Windblown trees and damaged roads also prohibit access for emergency vehicles so we are asking members of the public to help us by staying away for the moment.
“We don’t want anyone risking their personal safety – or potentially their life – by venturing in to our forests until such time as we can declare them safe.”
Farmers have also been badly affected, with one National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Scotland member reporting £70,000 worth of structural damage and 4000 claims already made to insurers NFU Mutual.
NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy warned the total scale of the damage would “run into many millions”.
“As we gather reports from our members up and down the country, the damage to many businesses has been extensive,” he said.
Tenant farmers Charley and Andrea Walker, who run an upland beef and sheep farm in the Scottish Borders, said up to 75% of the conifer woodland in and around fields had been destroyed.
Walker said: “It’s hard to take in the scale of the devastation here.
“Whole woods flattened, thousands of trees down. It’s going to take a long time to straighten out and shelter will be a challenge for years to come.”
The storm also took a toll on wildlife with around 800 seal pups battered to death by high seas at the National Trust for Scotland’s Berwickshire site.
The 19th-century pagoda at the trust’s Culzean property was damaged and about 200 trees were felled by strong gusts at Castle Fraser.
At Mar Lodge Estate National Reserve, a project to repair its historic Victoria Bridge was set back due to damage.
The Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh reported its gardens at Dawyck, Edinburgh, Benmore and Logan had been hit.
Dawyck in the Scottish Borders lost a flaky bark fir from China, established in the 1900s and one of the first to be introduced to the UK, and one of Edinburgh’s botanic garden’s tallest trees, the cedrus deodara, was hit.
READ MORE: Woodlands could save NHS Scotland and employers £26m a year, study finds
David Knott, curator of the living collections, said the damage would “take time to tidy up” but that other areas had suffered more.
He said: “Whole swathes of forests have been completely flattened and it’s a stark reminder of the impacts of climate change which is here with us for the foreseeable.”
One power company, Scottish Power Energy Networks, has announced it will pay out more than £1 million in additional compensation to customers cut off for more than 48 hours by Storm Arwen.
The company said about 8000 people would receive £150 on top of statutory payments.
A spokesperson for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said the company welcomed the Ofgem review which will focus on the network companies’ emergency response and the resilience of the system.
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