SSEN Distribution is to invest £10 million to upgrade its Taynuilt-Tullich network in Argyll – one of the firms Large Capital Projects, committed to delivering a safe, secure and reliable power supply for communities.

The project includes a number of the key ingredients that can be found across our major distribution network upgrades– for example, along the 18km route, teams will be:

• Working on two overhead lines

• Installing new poles and conductor (the line itself) on one of them

• Replacing the other with a new underground cable.

As well as making the local network more robust, resilient and less susceptible to power cuts, this upgrade project is also going to increase network capacity – in short, the new infrastructure will be able to accommodate the growing demand that comes as more and more people start using EVs and installing heat pumps with the move to net zero.

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SSEN said: "For those of you that don't know, Taynuilt and Tullich are in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland – a very beautiful part of the country, but also quite remote – and this sees sections of the network installed in some of our more 'logistically challenging' locations.

"All of this means that before we could even think about the installation of the new poles and lines, we needed to work out the most efficient and least impactful method of getting them there in the first place.

"And that's where the headline comes from – on Monday and Tuesday this week we took delivery of the first batch of poles by helicopter!

"130 poles were delivered this week, and the remaining 150 or so will be delivered early next year. Once the new line and underground cable are up and running, we'll dismantle the old lines and use the helicopter to take these away as well.

"It's not every day that we use a helicopter to deliver our equipment, and so as well as letting the local community know what was going to be happening via a letter drop and a social media update, we also invited STV News along to learn more about the project and capture the deliveries on film.

"We've compiled our own video of the day to give you a glimpse behind the scenes – with such a variety of essential works being carried out between now and the end of next year, we're looking forward to bringing you more content as the project progresses."