UKPN completes Stowmarket upgrade

The town’s main substation serving around 15,000 residents has been given a major upgrade by the company.

Remote control technology has been installed which means power supplies can often be restored remotely, therefore quicker than waiting for an engineer to travel to the substation.

The scheme has created additional capacity on the network so that it will remain reliable now and into the future with an anticipated increase in demand from the building of new homes and businesses in the fast-growing Stowmarket area.

The past three years has seen the replacement and upgrading of electrical equipment and infrastructure for greater resilience for power supplies for Stowmarket to effectively future-proof the developing town.

The latest work has cost £1.3m and supplements the site’s earlier replacement of transformers – equipment which steps down the voltage of electricity – as well as the introduction of a new building to house major switches and fuses.

UK Power Networks project manager John McAndrew said: “This investment highlights our commitment to ensuring local customers get a very reliable electricity service.

“Occasionally power cuts can still happen, often caused by reasons beyond our control. This scheme gives us the flexibility to restore power remotely where we can, getting the power back as quickly as safely possible for over 15,000 homes and businesses in Stowmarket.

“A number of extra homes have been built in the Stowmarket area and this is a continuing trend. This was the anticipated load growth the project was set up to capture.

“We continue to invest in new technology to ensure we can provide the best service possible to our customers.”

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