Scotland's Power Cut Hotspots: 16 Years of Data, Area by Area
The quick answer
We analysed 55,298 power faults in central and southern Scotland from April 2010 to May 2026. Dumfries and Galloway loses power most often: a typical home there was hit by a big power cut about 3 times every 4 years. In Glasgow it was once every 8 years, so homes in Dumfries and Galloway had cuts nearly 6 times as often. The Scottish Borders came second. The worst local areas, in rural Galloway, Carrick and the East Neuk of Fife, averaged around 2 cuts a year.
Everyone in rural Scotland knows the power goes off more often than in town. Now there’s a number for it. SP Energy Networks, which runs the cables in central and southern Scotland, publishes every high-voltage fault since 2010. We matched each fault to the part of the network it hit and to how many homes and businesses that part supplies. That gives a fair comparison between a city of 340,000 customers and a valley of 1,000.
The league table: power cuts by council area
“Cuts a year” is how many times a typical home or business lost power each year through a high-voltage fault, 2010 to 2026. These are the bigger faults, which usually cut off a whole village or part of a town. Smaller street-level faults come on top of these.
| # | Council area | Cuts a year | About one every | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dumfries and Galloway | 0.75 | 16 months | 86,000 |
| 2 | Scottish Borders | 0.68 | 18 months | 64,000 |
| 3 | Clackmannanshire | 0.53 | 2 years | 28,000 |
| 4 | East Ayrshire | 0.43 | 2½ years | 55,000 |
| 5 | South Ayrshire | 0.40 | 2½ years | 61,000 |
| 6 | Fife | 0.39 | 2½ years | 187,000 |
| 7 | East Lothian | 0.39 | 2½ years | 39,000 |
| 8 | West Lothian | 0.38 | 2½ years | 82,000 |
| 9 | Midlothian | 0.36 | 3 years | 50,000 |
| 10 | Falkirk | 0.36 | 3 years | 76,000 |
| 11 | Stirling | 0.35 | 3 years | 41,000 |
| 12 | East Renfrewshire | 0.34 | 3 years | 39,000 |
| 13 | Inverclyde | 0.29 | 3½ years | 36,000 |
| 14 | North Ayrshire | 0.29 | 3½ years | 58,000 |
| 15 | South Lanarkshire | 0.29 | 3½ years | 153,000 |
| 16 | North Lanarkshire | 0.26 | 4 years | 149,000 |
| 17 | East Dunbartonshire | 0.23 | 4½ years | 42,000 |
| 18 | City of Edinburgh | 0.16 | 6 years | 267,000 |
| 19 | West Dunbartonshire | 0.16 | 6 years | 45,000 |
| 20 | Renfrewshire | 0.14 | 7 years | 80,000 |
| 21 | Glasgow City | 0.13 | 8 years | 341,000 |
Averages hide a lot. A home at the end of a long rural line in Ayrshire can lose power far more often than one in Kilmarnock town centre, even though both are in East Ayrshire.
The worst local areas
SP Energy Networks’ network is split into about 400 local areas, each named after the substation that supplies it. These are the worst for power cuts among areas with 1,000 or more customers:
| Local area | Council | Cuts a year | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glenlee (Glenkens) | Dumfries and Galloway | 2.2 | 1,200 |
| Colinsburgh (East Neuk) | Fife | 2.1 | 1,800 |
| Pinwherry (Carrick) | South Ayrshire | 2.0 | 1,100 |
| Auchneel (Rhins of Galloway) | Dumfries and Galloway | 1.9 | 2,600 |
| Sorbie (the Machars) | Dumfries and Galloway | 1.9 | 2,900 |
| Gatehouse of Fleet | Dumfries and Galloway | 1.4 | 1,100 |
| Glenluce | Dumfries and Galloway | 1.3 | 1,100 |
| Carrutherstown | Dumfries and Galloway | 1.3 | 1,000 |
| Tongland | Dumfries and Galloway | 1.2 | 3,700 |
| Kirknewton | West Lothian | 1.2 | 2,500 |
| Biggar | South Lanarkshire / Borders | 1.2 | 3,300 |
| Lauder | Scottish Borders | 1.2 | 1,900 |
Customers on the worst lines have averaged around two power cuts a year for 16 years. Glasgow homes average one every eight years.
Why rural Scotland loses power more
- Overhead lines. Rural homes are fed by long lines on wooden poles across hills and forestry. Wind, falling trees, lightning and birds can all bring them down. Most city cables are underground.
- Long lines feed many places. One fault on a line across the Machars can cut off several villages at once.
- Weather. Galloway and the Borders take the Atlantic storms first. Storm Éowyn on 24 January 2025 was the worst day for the network in 16 years, and Dumfries was the worst-hit district. Read our Storm Éowyn analysis.
Worn-out equipment now causes more cuts than ever
Storms get the headlines, but they’re not the biggest cause. Worn or ageing equipment caused about 17,000 faults since 2010, against 11,000 from wind and gales. Faults put down to ageing equipment have nearly doubled, from 949 in 2010 to 1,805 in 2025. Part of that may be better record-keeping, but it’s a steady rise year after year.
What this means if you live in a hotspot
If you’re in one of the top areas, the power will go off, and probably more than once a winter. A few things make a real difference:
- Join the Priority Services Register if anyone at home is elderly, disabled, has young children or relies on medical equipment. It’s free; call 105. You get priority updates and, in long cuts, extra help.
- Have light, heat and charge sorted. Use our power cut checklist and how to keep warm in a power cut.
- Consider backup power if you work from home or need the fridge or medical kit running. Power station vs generator explains which suits you.
- Know you’re owed compensation after long cuts. Use our compensation calculator.
- Bookmark our live power cut checker, which now covers all of mainland Scotland.
How we worked this out
- Faults: SP Energy Networks’ open data on high-voltage faults, 1 April 2010 to 28 May 2026 (55,298 faults in its SP Distribution area, which is central and southern Scotland).
- Customers: SP Energy Networks’ open data on how many customers each high-voltage circuit supplies. We matched 84% of faults to a circuit and its local substation area.
- Cuts per home per year: the total number of customer interruptions in an area, divided by the number of customers there, divided by 16.2 years. Street-level (low-voltage) faults aren’t included.
- Council areas: each substation area is placed in the council where its centre lies, so areas that cross a boundary count towards one council. Small parts of Argyll and Bute and Northumberland supplied by SP Energy Networks are left out of the table.
- North of Scotland: the Highlands, Islands, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Angus, Dundee, Perth and Argyll are run by SSEN, which doesn’t publish fault history in the same way. They aren’t in this analysis.
Contains SP Energy Networks open data. Journalists are welcome to use these figures with a link to this page. Contact hello@preparedhousehold.co.uk for the full data.
Frequently asked questions
Which part of Scotland has the most power cuts?
In central and southern Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway. A typical home there was hit by a high-voltage power cut about 3 times every 4 years between 2010 and 2026, nearly 6 times as often as a home in Glasgow. The Scottish Borders was second. We haven't yet analysed the north of Scotland, which is run by a different network (SSEN).
Why do rural areas get more power cuts?
Rural homes are usually supplied by long overhead lines on wooden poles that run across open country, where wind, trees, lightning and birds can reach them. Towns and cities are mostly supplied by underground cables, which storms can't touch. One fault on a long rural line can also cut off several villages at once.
What causes most power cuts in Scotland?
In SP Energy Networks' data, worn or ageing equipment caused the most high-voltage faults (about 17,000 since 2010), followed by wind and gales (about 11,000). Lightning, birds and snow are the next biggest causes.
Where does this data come from?
SP Energy Networks, which runs the power network in central and southern Scotland, publishes every high-voltage fault since April 2010 as open data, along with how many customers each part of its network supplies. We joined the two to work out how often a typical home in each area loses power.