Power upgrade boost in Romford as £6.8 million project completed

The upgrade is a joint investment by UK Power Networks and local company Infinity (credit: pxfuel)

An electricity distributor has completed a £6.8 million project to boost electricity supplies for homes and businesses in Romford.

UK Power Networks has installed two new transformers and state-of-the-art switching equipment at an electricity substation in the north of the town to maintain reliability.

Transformers lower the voltage, enabling electricity to safely flow down UK Power Networks’ cables to people’s homes.

Switching equipment means that during a power cut, some power supplies can be quickly restored remotely before an engineer arrives to fix any repairs needed.

Costs have been shared with local employer, Infinity, to include a connection to power its new data centre.

UK Power Networks is investing £600 million in the electricity network across the South East, London and East of England this year.

Project manager, for UK Power Networks, Duane Gay said: “Our work in partnership with Infinity is future proofing the network for the local community and will have lasting benefits.

“This joint investment in the north of Romford has reinforced power supplies and will ensure reliability across the area going forward as well as being part of a major connections project which will create jobs in the town.

“It is a win-win for the local community.”

CEO at Infinity, Stuart Sutton said: “This investment has significantly boosted capacity at our London East Data Centre campus supporting the continued demand for digital infrastructure and allowing our customers to grow on-site with us.”

More than eight million homes and businesses are connected to electricity via the company’s cables and substations.

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