County gets its first net zero substation

Electricity North West has completed the £7.5m build of a net zero substation at Samlesbury Enterprise Zone.

The first of its kind in Lancashire, the new 33,000-volt net zero substation uses power from 91 solar panels to self-sufficiently run the electrical switchgear and lighting.

Around 10km of new underground cables have also been installed to almost double the network capacity and power the rapidly expanding Samlesbury area.

Ian Lillis, Electricity North West’s project manager for the Samlesbury Enterprise Zone project, said: "It has been a significant technical engineering project which has involved a lot of coordination with different authorities ensuring we always kept disruption to a minimum.

"The new substation will ensure the network has enough capacity to meet local demand and will guarantee that the major new facilities already being built will have the power they need to drive clean growth."

County coun Phillippa Williamson, leader of Lancashire County Council, added: "Our redevelopment of Samlesbury Enterprise Zone is a once in a generation opportunity to deliver a truly world-class, leading-edge collaborative environment, with the aim of bringing thousands of jobs to Lancashire, whilst ensuring we deliver a high-quality and sustainable site.

"We're proud that we've been working with Electricity North West to deliver this substation, which is the first of its kind in Lancashire, as part of our planned development of this site. We are already well underway with our complementary programmes which include planting thousands of trees and re-using material from the old runway on our counties roads, and this new substation adds to the sustainability of our redevelopment."