Southern Electric invest £12.6m on upgrading local network

The company says it is spending £90m this year to upgrade its network in central southern England, including 80km of new overhead electricity line with 1,500 new poles in the local network.
Engineers based in Theale are now putting plans into place to make sure that if blizzards, storms or flooding hit the south and cause power cuts, electricity supplies will be restored as quickly as possible.
Staff from SEPD’s Theale depot have patrolled 650km of high voltage overhead lines to make sure trees and branches are clear of electrical equipment. The depot is also taking delivery of two new 4x4 vehicles.
John Wright, operations manager at SEPD’s Theale depot, said:
“Our goal is to keep the lights on 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week but sometimes events outside our control, such as bad weather, can lead to power cuts. When this happens, our first priority is to get the electricity back to normal as quickly as possible and our staff will work around the clock to do that.”
SEPD urged customers who are elderly, disabled or need power for medical equipment such as a ventilator, dialysis machine or stairlift, to contact the company’s 24hr Priority Services team, telephone 0800 294 3259 so their details can be added to the Priority Services Register.