We've completed a £5m project to improve the local electricity infrastructure serving thousands of homes and businesses in Witney. This work – which has come to an end on schedule and within budget – is now delivering significant improvements for customers in time for Christmas
The improvements in detail
Existing transformers located within substations which were coming towards the end of their operational life have been replaced by larger capacity models. This has been complemented by the installation of a new high voltage switchboard. These improvements have unlocked an additional 50 MVA of electricity capacity for local homes and businesses, which is just over three times the level that was previously available to people in Witney. A replacement roof has also been installed to protect newly-installed equipment from the elements.
The benefits of extra capacity
Put simply, extra electricity capacity means more homes and businesses can move over to low carbon technologies, like electric vehicles and heat pumps. It also means that customers who want to generate and store their own clean power, via solar panels and batteries for example, are able to export excess power to their local network. In doing this, the extra capacity we've provided will help deliver Oxfordshire’s local decarbonisation targets.
This 18-month project – which has been delivered by our in-house teams in conjunction with our contract partners Freedom Group – also ensures local power supplies are now even more resilient. This reduces the risk of power cuts in a more-volatile climate.
Benedict Diment, SSEN Distribution’s Project Manager for the Witney Town project, says:
“The successful completion of this £5m project means Witney’s residents and businesses are now benefitting from a future-proofed and more resilient electricity supply in time for the festive holidays.
“By delivering targeted investment to replace critical components in our local substations, we’ve upgraded the network for our customers while causing them minimal disruption.
“The new state-of-the-art equipment in our substations means there’s much more electricity available for families to charge an EV or warm their home with a heat pump. And it means companies can also move over to low-carbon technologies or earn revenue through exporting power they generate via solar panels back to the local network.
“I’d like to thank local people for their patience while we’ve delivered these upgrades, and also our contract partners at Freedom Group for their excellent work in getting this project completed on time and on budget.”