Over £3million is being invested in a major initiative to improve power supplies in Shrewsbury town centre.

Large parts of the network that bring power to the Shrewsbury area have already been refurbished and reconfigured in the last two years.

The latest initiative has involved the replacement of around 4km of overhead power lines and associated wooden poles with new underground cable between Shrewsbury and Uffington, which will help to further safeguard supply reliability to around 16,000 customers in Shrewsbury town centre and Wier Hill. It will also better accommodate any increased demands placed on the power network in the future for additional developments.

Much of the new cable was installed on agricultural land and specialist contractors were brought in to carry out the work, which has taken 8 months to complete.

The project forms part of WPD’s commitment to provide a consistently high level of service to customers.

Andy Barton, WPD’s Distribution Manager for the area said: “It ensures that we can provide a high level of service to these areas in the long term by improving the infrastructure and security of our electricity network.”