£3m Investment to boost Shropshire network

Over £3million is being spent on a major initiative to boost power supplies in Shropshire.

WPD's Technician Paul Silson and Team Manager Melvyn Holmes check on progress of a directional drill.

This new initiative involves the replacement of equipment in a substation at Ironbridge and the laying of around 11km of new 33,000 volt cables to connect the substation to one at Halesfield. Once complete, it will also enable the future reinforcement of a further substation at Madeley. This will help to safeguard supply reliability to around 21,500 customers in the Ironbridge area.

WPD’s investment is also designed to better accommodate any increased demands placed on the power network in the future for additional developments.

“It ensures that we can provide a high level of service to these areas in the long term by improving the infrastructure and security of our electricity network,” said Melvyn Holmes, WPD’s Team Manager for the area.

The project, which started in February, is expected to be complete by the end of January 2015. Traffic management is in place to enable WPD’s contractors Morgan Sindall to lay the new cables.

The project forms part of WPD’s commitment to provide a consistently high level of service to customers. Around £2 billion is being invested by the company on its electricity network between 2010 and 2015.