Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/796215
NETWORK / 20 / MARCH 2017 STORM RESILIENCE drop everything and travel to where they are needed, came to ENW's ai d. "I just thought that was unbelievable." Greater Manchester police had plans to fly a pump into Carlisle substation using a Chinook helicopter on the Sunday, but this thankfully wasn't needed. Deehan is also quick to praise the efforts of his own team. "Some of our staff were out working helping our customers when their own properties were underwater, and that was quite humbling, especially in Carlisle." ENW was able to restore power to about half of the affected customers before the substation was back online by using a fleet of about 80 mobile generators that were connected at smaller, local substations. "We had every available mobile generator in the country," Deehan says, "it was the biggest mobilisation of generators ever." While the rural nature of a lot of ENW's distribution area made connecting every customer "an impossible task", had the problem been in a built-up inner city area, the generators wouldn't have come close to satisfying the demand of the number of customers that would have been without power. ENW also successfully enacted the mutual aid NEWSAC process, which allows DNOs struck by bad weather to call on the resources of other, hopefully unaffected, DNOs to assist in restoration efforts. Northern Powergrid sent 21 engineers, UKPN and SSE sent generators and engineers, and National Grid donated sandbags and equipment. The agreement worked less well during the storms of winter 2013. They took place over the Christmas period, and they were nationwide. This meant DNOs had Winter preparations • Northern Powergrid spent £9 million over the course of 2016 clearing trees and vegetation growing near 2,000km of power lines. • Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) invested £150 million to strengthen its networks. It has spent £44 million in the north of Scotland and £107 million in central southern England. The investment programme included flood-prevention measures, refurbishment and replacement of poles and extensive tree-cutting to prevent falling branches. Works include: • £75,000 to improve flood prevention in the Aberdeenshire communities of Ballater and Aboyne, which were badly affected by the floods in January 2015. • £130,000 on an extensive tree-cutting programme and the installation of new equipment in and around Chiddingfold. • £1.5 million on undergrounding a cable between substations in Godalming and Milford. • £500,000 to refurbish and replace the electricity network on Shetland. • SSEN also revealed plans in December 2016 to create a detailed 3D visualisation of its overhead lines to enable it to plan an effective tree- cutting programme. Infrastructure technology partner NM Group will conduct wide-ranging aerial surveillance of SSEN's assets using light detection and ranging (Lidar) technology. The resulting maps will include information such as cable height and the proximity of potential hazards such as vegetation to an accuracy of 2cm. The first stage of the project is due to be completed this month. • UK Power Networks invests more than £500 million in its networks each year.