Homes and businesses in the Western Isles are benefiting from a more resilient power supply thanks to a multi-million pound investment in the local electricity network.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) recently completed a £3.8 million programme of works to reinforce and improve the electricity network serving Uist, Barra, Eriskay and Vatersay.
The project included establishing a second 33 kilovolt (kV) electricity circuit stretching almost 18-mile from Drimore to Pollachar to provide greater resilience, reducing the load on the existing line and providing another route to quickly re-connect customers’ power supplies in the event of a fault on the existing circuit.
SSEN’s teams also installed an additional transformer at Pollachar substation and upgraded the high voltage network on South Uist, Barra and Eriskay to strengthen the security of supply to its customers.
As the team left the islands, they donated a 20ft storage unit to the local kayaking club at Daliburgh School to store new kayaks recently purchased through lottery funding.
Colin Pirie, head of the Highlands and Islands region at SSEN, said: “The completion of this investment marks an important milestone in the delivery of one of our business plan commitments, targeting our investment where it will have the greatest benefit and improving the security of supply to our customers.”