Engineers boost city centre power and unearth Roman past

Engineers have improved electricity supplies for hundreds of Exeter city centre businesses – uncovering Roman and medieval history in the process.

A new state-of-the-art underground substation has been built near Cathedral Green that will future-proof the area’s network for decades to come.

As well as enhancing the reliability of supplies, the £500,000 investment will add extra capacity to meet the future power needs of customers.

The complex scheme – which required the diversion of underground cables in High Street and working around nearby gas and water projects – will benefit 300 business customers in the immediate area.

Technician Matt Orr, who led the work, said: “This has been an interesting and challenging project which took a year to plan. It has not only added extra capacity to the local network, but has made it more resilient for customers with new fault-finding technology installed to trace problems quickly and restore power faster.”

The project to replace ageing infrastructure underneath the former Waterstones building also led to the discovery of new archaeological finds.

To get two new four-tonne transformers, circuit breakers and other new kit into the basement, engineers had to excavate to create a new access point.

This required digging to a depth of almost three metres which gave archaeologists a rare opportunity to comb through layers of the city’s history.

Simon Hughes from Devon-based AC Archaeology explained how there had been some interesting finds: “We found Roman pottery representing the legacy of the former regional capital city, Isca Dumnoniorum, and an early medieval fired clay weight, while the recovery of some dislocated human bone is hoped to represent the remains of Exeter's early medieval citizens.

“These are currently being analysed to provide a radiocarbon date. The results from these are eagerly awaited and are hoped to fit into the fascinating narrative of Exeter's medieval development.”