SSEN Distribution has begun a £10m programme to strengthen Elgin's electricity network, aiming to improve reliability for households and businesses and increase capacity at the city's Cumming Street and Bilbohall substations.

The two substations supply power 24/7 to more than 6,000 properties. As well as on-site upgrades at both locations, a new underground cable will be installed between them. The ten-month scheme will be delivered by SSEN's main contractor, OCU.

Beyond enhancing resilience, the investment will create extra headroom on the local grid to meet growing demand from electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps, and to support new housing and other developments in the city.

SSEN said low-carbon technologies such as EV chargers and heat pumps can help customers reduce monthly bills and cut emissions. Additional capacity will also enable more locally generated renewable electricity to be exported to the wider grid.

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Parts of the cable route run along the A96 through Elgin. Temporary traffic lights will be in place where works are under way to protect road users and installation teams.

Mark McLeod, SSEN Distribution's Project Manager, said: "This essential project is a major boost for homes and businesses across Elgin. Not only is it helping make customers' supplies even more reliable and less prone to power cuts, the increase in network capacity is helping to support the uptake in low carbon technologies and support economic growth across the city.

"Safety is the number one priority in everything we do, and while we appreciate that traffic lights can sometimes cause slight delays to people's day-to-day routines, they're in place for everyone's safety, and so we ask for road users' patience and care as they navigate parts of the route where they're in operation. By telling people about these upcoming works now, we hope people will use this information to plan their journeys and factor in more time if required."

This scheme is the first phase of a wider £25m upgrade to electricity infrastructure in and around Elgin, with further projects scheduled to start next year, all focused on reliability and increasing network capacity.