19 June 2006 00:00 Central Networks invests in Rubery’s electricity network and works with Severn Trent Water to minimise traffic disruption

Customers living in and around Rubery are benefiting from an extra boost to their electricity supply as Central Networks, the electricity distribution company for central England, completes work on a £480,000 improvement project for its local network.

Work began last year to replace underground electricity cables in the area and so far over 7km of new cable has been installed along Bristol Road South. More recently engineers have laid new cable along part of New Road in Rubery.

In an effort to minimise disruption for local road users, Central Networks worked closely with a team from Severn Trent Water to co-ordinate excavation and reinstatement work.

John Ball, Work Programme Co-ordinator with Central Networks said: “Once we realised that Severn Trent Water was also planning to lay pipes along New Road, we worked together to ensure that our cables and their pipes could share the same trench.

“We appreciate that this essential investment work will have meant inconvenience for some local residents and road users, but we’ve done our very best to minimise the disruption, and hope that residents will now enjoy the project’s benefits.

“This was a significant piece of work for Central Networks, reinforcing supplies to approximately 4,000 customers in the Rubery area, significantly improving reliability of supply and providing additional capacity.”

The work in Rubery forms just part of a £1.2bn investment being made into overhead lines, underground cables and substations by Central Networks, a company of E.ON UK, across the Midlands over a five-year period.

Ends

Notes to editors:
• Central Networks is the new name for Midlands Electricity and East Midlands Electricity. The company brings power to 4.9 million customers across Central England through 133,000km of underground and overhead cables – enough to go round the Earth almost four times – and via almost 97,000 substations;
• Central Networks covers an area from the Peak District in the north to parts of Bristol in the south, and from the Welsh Borders to the Lincolnshire Coast.

For further information contact:
Jamee Majid on 024 7642 5011
A selection of Central Networks pictures is available free of charge to the media by registering at www.newscast.co.uk and looking under Distribution