£8m investment pledged for Coventry and Warwickshire power network

Western Power Distribution (WPD) is investing £8 million on its electricity network in Coventry and Warwickshire to manage future demand from the area and to further safeguard supply reliability.

WPD became the electricity distribution business responsible for the Midlands in April 2011, and this new initiative involves it installing a new substation near the Royal Agricultural Showground at Stoneleigh Park and laying 23km of 33,000 volt cable between Warwick and Coventry. This will benefit around 81,000 customers in Kenilworth, Warwick, Leamington Spa, Harbury, Southam, Coventry and the surrounding areas.

The company’s Surf Telecoms business is also installing telecoms cables at the same time to minimise further disruption to the area.

The project is due to start in early January, with completion expected by the autumn of 2014.

“Our aim is to invest to maintain the reliability of electricity supplies for years to come,” said Patrick Booth, WPD’s Project Manager.

“We are committed to providing a consistently high level of service to customers and will have spent over £2 billion on our network between 2010 and 2015.

“While this work is being undertaken, our aim is to keep any disruption to an absolute minimum. We have been working very closely with the Coventry and Warwickshire Highways Authority to agree on the cable route which creates the least disruption for traffic flow in the area, and we have programmed our work to take into account what else is happening in the area.

“Our intention is also to work on major junctions during off peak times and to keep customers who live along the route fully informed.”