SSEN gets ‘Ready for Winter’ with £150m investment in its electricity network

Ahead of the winter, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has invested £150m in strengthening its electricity networks in the north of Scotland and central southern England, and launched an awareness campaign to help its customers also become ‘winter-ready’.

The ongoing investment programme in the electricity distribution network includes flood prevention measures, refurbishment and replacement of poles and extensive tree cutting to prevent falling branches. The investment was split across SSEN’s two distribution network areas with a £44m spend in the north of Scotland and a further £107m in the central southern England.

SSEN has also launched its Winter Ready Campaign to encourage its customers to start preparing for winter and get resilient plans in place ahead of any adverse weather.  

Running until February 2017, the 'We’re ready for winter. Are you?' campaign features artwork from the children of SSEN employees, with the drawings and messages reflecting the work their parents do 365 days a year to keep the lights on for SSEN’s 3.7 million customers.  

The campaign also provides customers with practical tips on how to prepare for a power cut or emergency weather situation and promotes the new free-to-dial single emergency number for reporting power cuts - 105.  This memorable three-digit number will directly route customers to the network operator for their area.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Managing Director, Colin Nicol said:
“We want our customers to be safe in the knowledge that we are doing all we can to keep their power on this winter. We have made it a priority to arm them with the information and the services they need to see them through the worst that the British winter can throw at them.

“While the campaign runs through the winter months, our commitment to building the resilience of our networks - and the resilience of the communities who rely on those networks - runs throughout the year.”

Here are some of the ways customers can prepare for winter:

• Packing an emergency bag and storing it in a safe place
• Safely store a plug-in analogue phone which works in a power cut
• Save important telephone numbers so they know who to contact
• Download the SSEN Power Track app to be kept up to date of any power cuts
• Sign up to SSEN’s Priority Services Register if they, or a vulnerable family member, require additional help during a power cut

For more information please visit ssen.co.uk.