New look Little Barford power station increases electricity support for more than 190,000 homes

Thousands of homes and businesses in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire are set to benefit from a £35million investment in the electricity network.

UK Power Networks’ major project at Little Barford, which began in 2018 and has now gone ‘live’, involved upgrading the capacity and reliability of power supplies for 190,000 properties.

In one of the biggest infrastructure investments in the region for many years, the project involved the installation of new cable circuits, re-routing of overhead power lines and the installation of new towers.

All equipment on the Little Barford site was dismantled and replaced with new kit installed under cover. Ten-metre high concrete frames were taken down, with one left standing for an extra few months while house martins nested on it.

Working alongside its Alliance partners Kier, Wood, and Morrison Energy Services, UK Power Networks installed new 132,000-volt underground cables that stretch 2.5km between Little Barford and Eaton Socon. Engineering teams used directional drills to channel underneath main roads, a river and a golf course with minimum impact on the local environment.

The work will future-proof local power supplies, as well as enabling more low carbon electricity generation to feed into the grid. As more people connect renewable energy, heat pumps and electric vehicles to local electricity networks, UK Power Networks plays a critical role in helping to enable the UK’s transition to a Net Zero economy.

Arinze Udenwa, project manager for UK Power Networks said; "The improvement works at Little Barford have replaced old equipment with modern kit that will increase network reliability for years to come.”