SSEN have announced a £4 million scheme to upgrade electricity infrastructure in Glenfinnan to reduce the risk of power cuts and increase network capacity to meet the forecasted growth in low carbon technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.

The project will be carried out in two overlapping phases along a route of approximately 14km, starting in Glenfinnan and ending near Lochailort.

• The installation of new underground cabling, which commenced at the end of January and will last for approximately six months

• The installation of over 130 new wooden poles and overhead wires, which is due to commence in March, with works continuing through to late 2022

The 14km route will see teams working in and around Glenfinnan itself, as well as covering some very remote areas along the way. SSEN will be bringing in a Horizontal Directional Drill (HDD) to install the new cable underneath watercourses along the route, minimising disruption to the local landscape and limiting the environmental impact of these essential works.

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The HDD works by boring a direct route under the bed of the watercourse, through which a cable duct is installed, before the new cable is pulled through and then connected to the rest of the cable route.

John Thoms, SSEN's Project Manager, said: "We're always keen to be a good neighbour in the communities where we're working, and the Glenfinnan project timetable has been planned to ensure we're avoiding popular tourist areas during the traditional peak holiday periods.

"As part of the cable installation, there will be times during the project that we'll need to work on the public highways, and these works will be signposted in advance. We'll do everything we can to keep disruption to a minimum, and I'd like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience these essential works will cause."

Where possible, SSEN will be using local contractors to provide essential services on the project, for example traffic management services, and a nearby company will also be providing some of the materials used to backfill the excavation works.

Gary Bartlett, Head of SSEN's South Caledonia region, explains the importance of this project: "We want to provide our customers with a safe, secure and responsive supply of electricity. This £4m investment will not only make the local network more robust and resilient, it will also crucially increase capacity, which will help facilitate the increasing number of customers looking to connect to our network, as well as accommodating the growth in electric vehicles and heat pumps in the home."