SSE Engineers have completed a £145 million electricity strengthening programme across central southern England.

Work included maintaining and refurbishing key parts of the network to ensure it is ready in preparation for winter.

SSE has invested in substations, stronger overhead wires, more robust underground cables, and hi-tech automated equipment to switch electricity supplies from another source if power is cut.

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One of the largest investments has been in 'smart fuse' technology. These devices detect faults and, if it is safe to do so, switch the power back on rather than wait for an engineer to drive to the fault site.

In addition, Southern Electric Power Distribution has invested nearly £20million in cutting trees and branches that could come into contact with overhead lines, and cause a power cut.

Director of Distribution, Stuart Hogarth, said: "This new investment work in the area will mean our network is even more robust. If there is a power cut, supplies in these areas will be restored more quickly as a result of this investment."

(LM/MH)