Substation fire causes outage affecting 17 postcodes in Inverness
Sept 2023Published 2 Oct 2026
Companies named in this entry: Southern
What happened
On 15 September 2023, homes and businesses near Clachnaharry, Raigmore and Inverness city centre were without power after a reported fire at an electrical substation. Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said crews were called at 3.30am to a building fire at Waterloo Place affecting a single-storey plant room. Two appliances attended, brought the blaze under control, and were stood down at 6am. Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks confirmed an unplanned outage and said supply across 17 postcodes would be affected until 6pm.
Contributing factors
The cause of the fire and of the network fault was not reported.
Lessons learned
- A fire in a substation plant room can cut supply across many postcodes even when crews bring it under control within a few hours.
- Network operators should state which areas are affected and when supply is expected back.
- Fire crews and network engineers should keep the site safe before restoration work continues.
Source
Published 2026-10-02. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.