Power restored to Edinburgh pubs in time for Hogmanay

Power has been restored to Edinburgh's Old Town in time for the city's Hogmanay celebrations after the latest in a series of blackouts.

At least 30 restaurants and bars in The Grassmarket said they have been "crippled" by several power cuts which had caused a significant loss of trade.

SP Energy Networks said its engineers would be on standby in the area until the early hours of New Year's Day and apologised for the inconvenience.

It said it was happy to meet with businesses to discuss the issues which had affected the power supply to the area.

Louise MacLean, director of Signature Pub Group, which owns Cold Town House bar in The Grassmarket, spoke to the BBC after the power had been restored at 15:30 on Wednesday.

"It seems to happen every festive period in The Grassmarket but this year has been the worst and it has happened on the worst day of the year for us," she said.

Ms MacLean said that during the power cut on Wednesday they had tried serving drinks at the windows and on the rooftop for a short period until the back-up battery for the tills ran out.

She said it was a "massive frustration" that they had to turn away hundreds of customers - but reassured anyone thinking of visiting the area for Hogmanay that there would be "a party in The Grassmarket tonight".

She said pubs had been told that there may continue to be intermittent issues with supplies but that it would be "all systems go" from 18:00.

"The engineers are outside and they are now not leaving until the small hours so if anything does happen they are on site. They are taking this incredibly seriously now," she added.

Pub owners said the power cuts had plunged businesses in the area, which is popular with new year revellers, into "a black hole" over the festive period.

They wrote a letter to the chief executive of SP Energy Networks about the problems, which they say they have suffered during the festive periods since 2021.

The letter, which has been copied to City of Edinburgh Council's chief executive Paul Lawrence and local MSP Angus Robertson, says there is "deep concern" about the problem.

It reads: "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."

The businesses said they were counting the cost of multiple power failures that have driven party-goers from the area, and that "the longstanding issue remained unresolved".

Some venues have reported experiencing power cuts multiple times a day during the festive season, "putting Christmas trade in the dark".

In one December weekend alone, Grassmarket businesses lost the whole of Friday night's service and the entire Saturday lunch service, meaning thousands of pounds in lost revenue across a number of venues.

"Meanwhile, business costs remain. Staff must still be paid in case power returns, food is wasted, and bookings are lost," the letter's authors said.

The most recent power cut was caused by an underground cable fault on Kings Stables Road.

Another outage on 11 December was traced to a low-voltage cable joint failure near Kings Stables Road Lane.

Previous outages occurred in December 2022 due to a low-voltage fault and in 2024 and 2025 there were high-voltage cable faults affecting a large number of customers.

A SP Energy Networks spokeswoman said there had been "intermittent issues" with the power supply to the Grassmarket area and that it had being doing its utmost to resolve the issue ahead of the Hogmanay celebrations.

She said problems on Tuesday, which saw customers lose power between 15:00 and 17:00 and again between 18:00 and 20:00, were the result of a fault in a low voltage protection fuse operation.

Engineers were called out again on Wednesday after the power tripped mid-morning.

The spokeswoman said that SP Energy Networks fully recognised the impact of the power cuts at such a busy time of year and apologised for the inconvenience.

"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 on Wednesday."

She said they were adding extra staff who would be on standby across midnight and into the early hours of New Year's Day, and added they were happy to meet with businesses in the new year.