£250k electricity upgrade for rural Inverness communities
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A £250,000 project to upgrade the local electricity infrastructure between Inverness and communities to the south of Loch Ness is now under way.
Teams from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) will be working over the next 12 weeks to ensure its equipment continues to provide homes and businesses in the in Dores, Duntelchaig and Achnabat areas with the best service possible for many years to come.
The work will see specialist teams from the company’s Inverness depot carrying out a major refurbishment of the overhead network in the area, helping to increase the resilience and reliability of supplies for around 350 customers.
Davie Carson, SSEN’s project manager, said: “We want to do all we can to keep the power flowing for our customers. For this project, which covers rural communities to the south of Inverness, we’re focussing on three key types of work: installing new technology, upgrading the existing infrastructure and tree cutting.
“On the technology side we’re installing new automated equipment which 'talks' to our control room and alerts them to any potential issues which could lead to a power cut, and to upgrade the existing infrastructure we’re replacing 60 wooden poles which carry the overhead lines.
“Our colleagues from the tree cutting department will also be busy, ensuring that any nearby trees and vegetation are kept well away from the lines and poles, as with the winters we have up here, storms and high winds bring the potential to blow trees over, and we want to do all we can to make sure they don’t end up on our lines and cause a power cut.”
To minimise disruption to customers, SSEN is installing temporary mobile generation to keep the power flowing as the work progresses.
SSEN would like to remind customers of its priority services register, which offers free additional support to those who need it most.
People can register for additional help if they are disabled, have hearing or sight difficulties, have a chronic illness or use medical equipment/aids reliant on electricity, are over 60 or temporarily need extra support
To find out more about Priority Services, please visit ssen.co.uk/PSR or call 0800 294 3259.
