UK Power Networks is completing an £825,000 upgrade to the electricity network that connects homes and businesses in Forest Row, East Sussex.
Britain’s biggest electricity distributor, which delivers power supplies to approximately 20 million people across the South East, London and East of England, has invested in additional network capacity and resilience at a substation in the heart of the village.
Engineers have installed and energised a new 22-tonne transformer which steps down voltage from 33,000 to 11,000 volts so power can be safely delivered to smaller electricity substations and ultimately distributed to 3,900 local homes and businesses.
Work at Forest Row is part of the £600 million investment programme which UK Power Networks is delivering this year to keep power supplies flowing safely and reliably to the communities it serves.
Farukh Amin, project manager at UK Power Networks, said: “The beauty of this project is that with the commissioning of the new transformer, the security and resilience of the network is not only maintained, but increased.
“The site will meet increasing demand for electricity as residents connect more low carbon technologies to our networks.”
It will accommodate growth in demand as more low-carbon technologies connect to the electricity network in the future, including electric vehicles, heat pumps and solar panels on residential rooftops.
The new electrical equipment replaces a transformer which was well maintained and served the area since the 1960s. The previous transformer is being recycled by specialist contractors as part of the company’s circular economy goals.
To future-proof the investment, the new equipment is also being protected by a flood wall to further enhance the resilience of the site in the event of a one-in-100-year flood.
The nine-month project started in February and the new transformer is now energised. Once the remaining civil works are complete the project will be fully finished.
UK Power Networks maintains the network of cables, substations and power lines that deliver electricity to 8.5 million homes and businesses (a population of about 20 million people) across the South East, London and East of England.
