SSEN Completes £1.7m Portsmouth Upgrade

SSEN has completed a £1.7 million upgrade to part of Portsmouth's electricity infrastructure; bringing a more robust and flexible power supply to homes and businesses in the area.

Along with thousands of customers across the Portsea Island area, those living and working in Wymering will benefit from this latest programme of works by SSEN to build resilience into the local network, while accommodating customers' needs in the years ahead as they take up more low carbon technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Work commenced on the upgrade project in November 2020, when SSEN set out to replace grid transformers and equipment on the section of network supplying thousands of customers from the Fort Widley substation; redeveloping the network and feed to both the Wymering and Portsmouth substations and replacing equipment nearing the end of its working life with more modern and efficient kit.


The project comes on the back of a programme of works carried out on a connected section of Portsmouth's power infrastructure some years ago and is part of SSEN's ongoing plans to reinforce and upgrade the local network to ensure it is fit for the future.

SSEN's Project Manager, Ben Wollaston said: "My team and I would like to thank our customers in Wymering and Portsea Island for their patience while we carried out these works over the last 18 months.

"We're delighted to have completed this project, knowing that the local infrastructure is now more resilient and ready for local residents and businesses making the move to the low carbon technologies that will help them reach their net zero goals."

Ben continued: "By replacing and upgrading this sizeable section of the Portsea Island network through modern grid transformers and associated equipment, we are providing our customers with the network they need to meet their requirements now and for many years to come."

Through the investment in this section of the local electricity network, SSEN is helping communities and businesses across the wider Portsmouth and Hampshire areas to achieve their decarbonisation goals, so as more customers turn to low carbon technologies such as EVs and heat pumps, they have a supply and infrastructure that's fit for purpose.