Edinburgh firms hit out at 'crippling' impact of power outages
Firms in tourist hotspot say network issues date back years
Hospitality businesses in one of Edinburgh’s most popular tourist hotspots have warned that the city’s global reputation as the “ultimate Hogmanay destination” is being put at risk by a series of power outages.
The group of bars, restaurants, and hotel firms in the Grassmarket area said an “urgent” solution is required for what they described as “systemic vulnerabilities” in the energy network, and called for contingency measures and infrastructure improvements to be put in place.
The network of companies, collectively known as the Grassmarket Hospitality Operators (GHO), say they have incurred “substantial financial losses” as well as reputational harm during peak trading hours of the festive period.
SP Energy Networks, the electricity transmission and distribution network, apologised for the outages and said it was putting extra staff in place over the Hogamanay celebrations. It has also said it is happy to meet with businesses in the new year to discuss its investment plans.
The latest outage on Hogmanay was due to what SP Energy Networks described as a “recurring power interruption,” but the dozens of firms in the Grassmarket said it is just the latest example in a series of problems with the supply.
GHO pointed to an outage of Tuesday evening, caused by an underground cable fault on Kings Stables Road, and another outage on 11 December, which it said was traced to a low-voltage cable joint failure near Kings Stables Road Lane. While temporary restoration was achieved via alternative feeds, the group said the disruption caused “multiple interruptions during attempts to find the fault.
In a statement, GHO said its members had been “crippled” by a significant loss to Christmas trade due to ongoing network energy failures, and called on SP Energy Networks to make immediate improvements.
“Some hospitality venues also experience power outages multiple times a day during the festive season, putting Christmas trade in the dark,” it said.
“In one December weekend alone, Grassmarket businesses lost the whole of [a] Friday night’s service and the entire Saturday lunch service, meaning thousands of pounds in lost revenue across several hospitality venues.
“Meanwhile, business costs remain. Staff must still be paid in case power returns, food is wasted, and bookings are lost.”
The group has written to Nicola Connelly, chief executive officer of SP Energy Networks, to demand action, and point out that there have been similar outages over the Christmas period going back to 2021.
In the correspondence, they say the “repeated failures” were exacting a heavy financial toll on hospitality traders, with Edinburgh’s reputation also impacted.
It states that previous outages have involved both low voltage and high voltage faults affecting a large number of customers, and claims that an engineer called to assess the most recent issues said the substation was “too small.”
In its email to Ms Connelly, the group stressed: ““While we appreciate SP Energy Networks’ apologies and the assurance that network condition reviews are underway, the recurring nature of these outages indicates systemic vulnerabilities that require urgent and permanent solutions.
“The current approach of reactive repairs is insufficient to safeguard businesses and customers in this critical hospitality district.”
It has asked the firm to share a detailed timeline for network reinforcement or infrastructure upgrades in the area, and for what, if any, interim steps are planned to minimise the current disruption. The group has also asked for the establishment of a dedicated liaison group to provide businesses with regular updates.
In a response to the concerns issued on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for SP Energy Networks said: “We’re experiencing intermittent issues with the power supply to the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh and would like to reassure all customers and businesses that we’re doing our utmost to resolve the issue as soon as possible ahead of Hogmanay celebrations starting later.
“Yesterday’s faults were the result of low voltage protection fuse operation due to an intermittent fault being defected, which saw customers off for an hour in the afternoon, approx. 3pm to 5pm, and again from 6pm to 8pm. We fully recognise the impact this will have caused at such a busy time of year, and we apologise for the inconvenience. Power tripped again midmorning today and we’re currently on site and working to resolve this as soon as possible.”
The spokesperson added: “Our staff are going door to door in the Grassmarket to reassure customers that we’re doing our utmost to ensure there are no further disruptions today. We’ll also have additional staff on standby tonight across the bells and into the early hours.
“We’re happy to meet with any groups affected in the new year to discuss our investment plans to strengthen the network and lessen any disruption going forward.”
It was announced in December 2025 that billions of pounds are to be spent upgrading the energy grid in Scotland as part of a £28 billion investment across the UK which will push up network charges on household bills by £108.
Under plans which have been approved by UK energy regulator, Ofgem, Scottish Power, which runs the network in central and southern Scotland, will invest an initial £2bn of a larger £12bn package, while while SSE is to spend £3.4bn.
Scottish Power’s SP Energy Networks business will also begin work to build 12 new major substations, upgrade 450 kilometres of existing circuits, reconduct 87km of overhead lines and replace 35km of underground cable between 2026 and 2031.
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