Sections of Workington’s power network have been upgraded with specialist equipment ahead of the winter months.
Throughout the year, Electricity North West has invested more than £5m improving large sections of the network and installing more automated equipment in its region.
Automated technology allows for power to be restored to customers much quicker and remotely should faults impact the network, allowing teams to carry out repairs much quicker where it is required.
Workington MP Mark Jenkinson attended site to learn more about automation and how the system works and benefits customers.
Jonathan Eggleston, Electricity North West’s area manager for Cumbria, said: “It was a pleasure to highlight our recent network upgrades and investment in Workington to Mark Jenkinson.
“Faults on the overhead network can be caused by a lot of things but main causes are usually birds, wind-borne debris or branches when they come into contact with power lines.
“For safety reasons, the network then cuts power to that part of the line and any customers connected to it until an engineer could attend, remove the problem and restore power safely.
“Many issues however, are only temporary so now, with more automation being installed, we can almost instantly restore power to more customers without sending an engineer to site.”
As part of its winter preparations, Electricity North West is delivering a multimillion-pound programme of investment, to increase the resilience of the power network during the winter months.
The work is focused on areas which are often worst affected by extreme weather across the region from Cumbria to Cheshire, with tens of thousands of customers set to benefit.
The investment, worth more than £16m, will help make the overhead and underground power network more resilient and make it quicker to restore power if damage occurs. Investments are also being made to cut trees close to overhead lines and improving flood defences.
“It’s really good to see that Electricity North West has made significant investment on the network,” added Mark Jenkinson MP.
“With the winter months fast approaching, which typically bring bad weather, this sort of investment is exactly what people want to see.
“Thousands will benefit from installing more automation systems as it will allow engineers to restore power much quicker than if they needed to attend a site.”
For more information about Electricity North West’s Be Winter Ready campaign, including how eligible customers can receive extra support in a power cut, visit www.enwl.co.uk/BeWinterReady
