New equipment speeds power cut restoration

New equipment has been fitted at a substation in Sutton Coldfield which will enable the speedier restoration of electricity supplies.

WPD's engineering specialist Pete Lewis (left) with Bob Lang from WPD's policy team.

The new equipment will help to minimise disruption when a fault occurs on the electricity network by automatically restoring customers’ supplies. In many cases, electricity will be restored within seconds and customers won’t have to wait for engineers to attend site and restore supplies manually.

“The work, which took around three months to complete, will help to safeguard electricity supplies to around 5,000 customers in Sutton Coldfield and Boldmere for years to come,” said Kester Jones, WPD’s Distribution Manager for the area.

The initiative forms part of WPD’s commitment to provide a consistently high level of service to customers. Around £2 billion will be invested by the company on its electricity network between 2010 and 2015.