MP Karen Buck is opening EDF Energy Networks’ new £23million substation which will keep electricity flowing to thousands of customers across West London, UK. On January 9 the Labour member for Regent’s Park and Kensington North toured the new substation in her constituency where a major redevelopment, which began in January 2005, is nearly complete.

The company has constructed a new switch room in the St John’s Wood area and replaced essential electrical equipment that can be remotely controlled by engineers from a control center to restore customer supplies more quickly in the event of a power interruption.

The visit included a tour of the state-of-the-art switch room, automated control centre and cable basement, which together supply power to up to 180,000 people in West London, stretching from Kensington in the south to Hampstead in the north.

As part of the project EDF Energy Networks has worked with National Grid to provide additional power capacity to meet increasing demand for electricity. A new cable tunnel was installed to connect National Grid’s equipment to EDF Energy Networks site.

The new switch room building was constructed alongside the existing equipment to ensure there was a seamless electricity supply throughout the work.

Ms Buck said: “I am delighted to be opening the new Lodge Road substation today and welcome EDF Energy’s investment in my constituency. I hope that this new equipment and the improvements which have been made in terms of increased capacity will continue to meet the energy needs of people in West London for years to come.”  

Director of Capital Program Barry Hatton said: “This new switch room is one of our largest infrastructure projects and an important milestone in our investment program. It will increase the resilience of electricity supplies for customers in West London. We are committed to providing the best service possible and this will help ensure London continues to receive a secure supply of electricity for years to come.”

It is one of the largest investment projects that the company is carrying out in the five-year investment program up to 2010. The project is part of an overall investment of £400million this year in the electricity networks EDF Energy Networks runs and part of a projected investment of £2billion over the five years to 2010.