£3.5m Sidmouth electricity upgrade moves forward

Thousands of Sidmouth residents will benefit from improvements to the town’s electricity network as part of a £3.5 million investment.

Engineers have just finished 10 months of work extending and upgrading a town centre primary substation and replacing 1960s electrical equipment with the latest technology.

Above: the equipment before the upgrade 

High voltage circuits were diverted and transferred and the electricity supplies for the residents of 5,300 properties have been switched to the new systems without any power interruptions.

Above: after the upgrade, fitted with newer technology 

The next stage of the investment programme will concentrate on an out-of-town site, where an existing substation is being entirely rebuilt.

Work here over the next eight months will see new equipment installed to control, protect and isolate power systems.

Trees will be planted around the southern boundary of the site to ensure the development has no significant impact on the surrounding countryside.

For the final phase of the project, engineers will replace two 25-tonne primary transformers at the town centre site feeding the whole of Sidmouth and the surrounding area.

NGED Project Engineer Sam Gilman said: “We finished the first phase of work in the town centre just ahead of schedule and are on track to complete the entire scheme by December 2025.

“These two upgrades will deliver stable and reliable electricity supplies for Sidmouth residents for decades to come, while also ensuring our network is ready to meet the growing demand from customers to connect electric vehicle chargers, heat pumps and other low carbon technologies.”

In all 9,000 properties will benefit from the improvements to the electricity distribution network.