NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 19:52 ET
- Edinburgh Grassmarket hospitality venues say repeat outages have hit Christmas trade and raised fears of disruption on Hogmanay.
- SP Energy Networks said an intermittent fault triggered protective equipment and cut supply in the Old Town this week.
- Business operators have urged the network firm to set out a timetable for upgrades and contingency plans.
Edinburgh pubs and restaurants in the Grassmarket have warned that further electricity outages could hit Hogmanay, after repeated blackouts disrupted trade during the festive period.
The timing matters for the city’s hospitality industry because Hogmanay — Scotland’s New Year celebrations — is among the busiest nights of the year, with venues relying on packed bars and restaurants.
Operators say the disruption goes beyond lost takings. They say repeated outages risk turning customers away, forcing cancellations and harming Edinburgh’s reputation as a New Year destination.
SP Energy Networks said an intermittent fault triggered protective equipment on Tuesday, cutting power for about an hour in the afternoon and again in the early evening, before supply tripped again on Hogmanay morning. 1
A “power trip” is an automatic shutdown designed to protect the network when it detects a problem. In this case, the company said low-voltage fuses operated — a safety measure that can cut supply if the system senses an electrical fault.
The Grassmarket Hospitality Operators group said around 30 venues had been affected and that it had written to SP Energy Networks chief executive Nicola Connelly, copying the City of Edinburgh Council’s chief executive Paul Lawrence and Scottish Culture Secretary Angus Robertson. “Grassmarket businesses have reported a repeated loss of power, but the longstanding issue remains unresolved,” said Louise MacLean, business development director at Signature Group, a Scottish hospitality operator. 2
The group has asked for a clear timetable for network reinforcement and contingency measures to reduce disruption during winter peak periods, according to the reports.
SP Energy Networks said its staff were going door-to-door in the Grassmarket to reassure businesses and would have extra engineers on standby through the bells and into the early hours, while it worked to resolve the fault.
The issue follows an earlier December outage that the company said was traced to a low-voltage cable joint failure near Kings Stables Road Lane, with supply temporarily restored via alternative feeds while engineers investigated. 1
SP Energy Networks is the electricity distribution operator — the firm that owns and maintains the local cables and substations — across the Central Belt and the south of Scotland, and it serves about 2 million customers in that region, a 2023 filing to regulator Ofgem said. 3
The company says it moves electricity over its network but does not sell power or send bills to customers, roles handled by retail suppliers. 4
In Scotland, another major distribution operator, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, delivers electricity across the north of Scotland and parts of southern England, underscoring the scale of grid operations that underpin local trading districts. 5
For Grassmarket operators, the immediate focus is on keeping tills and kitchens running through peak holiday trading, and on securing a timeline for longer-term fixes. SP Energy Networks has said it would meet affected groups in the new year to discuss investment plans and steps to reduce future disruption.
