Installation of an £11m electrical supply system to prevent weather-related blackouts has finally been completed in the Scottish Borders. The new network, which includes 11 sub-stations as well as hundreds of kilometres of reinforced cable, should reduce the impact of storms on ScottishPower customers in the region.
The two-year project is the biggest investment the electricity industry has made in the area since the 1930s. The new sub-stations will allow workmen to use a remote-control system to switch power supplies back on during a blackout without having to access damaged electricity pylons.
Ronnie Mercer, ScottishPower’s group director, said the improvements included increasing the storm-resilience of the Borders electricity back- bone, two massive 'rings' of overhead circuit, both starting at Eccles. “One is 80km long serving customers in the east of the region and Berwickshire, and the other, 205km long, feeds Hawick, Galashiels and the other communities to the west.”