Powerful investment for Heage

Over £2million is being spent on a major initiative to boost power supplies in Heage, north Derbyshire.

This new initiative involves the dismantling of around 10km of overhead power lines and the removal of forty steel towers on a circuit that runs between Alfreton, Ambergate and Denby. The equipment is being replaced by a mixture of underground cables and overhead power lines on wooden poles.

As well as minimising the visual impact that the essential infrastructure has on the area, the new equipment will help to further safeguard supply reliability to around 20,000 customers in the area.

“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 Pat Booth, WPD’s Projects Manager for the area.

Work began installing the new circuit last summer and sections of the overhead power lines have already been removed. Work to dismantle the towers is now underway and the final stages of the project are expected to be complete by the Autumn.

Residents in Heage watched as contractors for Western Power Distribution, pulled down one of the steel towers on Wednesday morning. Eric Alton, 82, who lived nearby came to see the iconic moment, having also witnessed its construction when he was a young boy in the 1930s.