Power supplies for homes and businesses in Maidstone are set to become more reliable after engineers installed a new 42-tonne transformer at an electricity substation.

The deliveries mark the next stage of a £5.1 million power investment in new substation equipment and cabling to serve thousands of people in the town with electricity.

Transformers change the power voltage so it can be safely delivered to homes and businesses in the area.

The second of two machines was delivered to the substation last week and work is now taking place behind the scenes to make the equipment ready to go live on the network and connect with new electricity cabling being installed along a 4.1km route between substations in Maidstone and Shepway.

Duncan Smith, project manager at UK Power Networks, said: “This is an important milestone in a major investment project that will provide residents in Maidstone with a safe and reliable electricity supply for years to come.

"This is the second of two new transformers we have installed at the site and once they are connected to the network, electricity supplies will be boosted in the area for many years to come.”

Power cuts have reduced by 42% since 2010/11, when UK Power Networks began and the project in Maidstone is one of the operator's plans to deliver further network reliability improvements across the south east, London and east of England totalling £600m this year.

Once the equipment goes live, the new transformers at Maidstone will step down the voltage from 33,000 to 11,000-volts, so the electricity can be delivered to other local substations and then on to homes and businesses.

The firm plans to invest £6.6 billion over the eight years to 2023 and the overall project in Maidstone is due to be completed by this autumn.

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