A £500,000 investment to improve and strengthen the resilience of the electricity network serving Lochinver and surrounding areas is now complete; with teams from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) delivering the project during the winter months to reduce the impact on tourism in the local area.
SSEN's engineers started major work in October of last year to strengthen the main overhead line stretching 20 miles north of Lochinver in very remote and rural settings.
The £500,000 investment included the replacement of wooden electricity poles, installation of lightning protection, replacement of old transformers, tree cutting to reduce the risk of tree-related power cuts and the installation of smart technology to improve fault locating.
Colin Pirie, Head of Region for the Highlands and Islands, said:
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the local community for their patience as we worked to upgrade and strengthen the electricity network serving Lochinver and surrounding areas. We understand how important a safe and reliable supply of electricity is, particularly to some of the more remote communities in the Highlands and Islands as we face difficult weather conditions during the winter."
"Working throughout the winter months with the shorter working days posed challenges for our teams, but as a responsible operator we had to ensure our plans fit with what was best for the local community, with tourism in the summer months of utmost importance to the area."
SSEN used mobile generation to minimise disruption to its customers, but where customer supplies were affected, SSEN's teams arranged for all its Priority Services Register (PSR) customers to have hot food available, provided by a local hotel.
Mike Sutherland, SSEN's Project Manager for the Lochinver Project, added:
"With the support of community nurses and carers we made sure those most vulnerable in the area were supported throughout the project. For those who couldn't make it along to the local hotel, we arranged for delivery to ensure those who required extra support received a warm meal delivered directly to their door, thanks to our local retained linesman Alun Owen."
"The local community councillors have been a great help during this project. We used a local Facebook page to keep in touch, providing updates on the progress of the work along with other relevant information. While we were in the area, we used our specialist equipment to cut trees around Culag Park to help Assynt Community Association clear the route of a proposed new deer fence to keep the area clean for local children to play. We were delighted to help the community out in any way we possibly could."