New switching gear will keep the lights on (From Basingstoke Gazette)

New switching gear will keep the lights on

4:35pm Monday 15th March 2010 in

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HIGH-tech equipment costing £11,500 has just been installed at two electricity substations in a bid to reduce powercuts at Wellow.

Southern Electric says the state-of-the-art gear should make power supplies even more secure for over 4,000 homes in the area that has suffered unexpected blackouts in the past.

Engineers has installed new hi-tech ‘switching’ equipment at the high voltage substations at Fielders Way and Gurnays Mead and this will allow officials to divert power from other substations by remote control if supplies fail at the two sites.

The scheme was part of the supplier’s on-going programme of renewing lines.

Southern Electric’s New Forest depot operations manager Sally Maynard said: “It there’s a power cut on the high voltage network in these parts of Hampshire, out central control room can now get on the case immediately. They can re-route electricity from another part of the network and most residents will just see a ‘blip’ in the power whilst the new supply kicks in.”