Following a competitive tendering process, OCU Utility Services was awarded the Electricity North West (ENWL) Padiham 132kV Cable Installation contract.
Valued at approximately £6.6m, the work was necessary to undertake because both ENWL and National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET), who are joint owners of the Padiham 132kV substation, identified that the existing facility needed to be replaced by new 132kV switchgear.
Due to the risk of flooding in the vicinity of the substation, a new Gas Insulated Substation (GIS) was required, which also become a joint ENWL/NGET facility.
Scope of Work
The 132kV substation, located near Burnley, is fed from the Padiham 400kV substation via 2 no. 400kV/132kV Super Grid Transformers (SGTs) and is situated approximately 750m away from the 132kV GIS.
The new substation now comprises;
On completion, the above assets will be owned by a combination of ENWL and NGET.
As principal contractor for all underground cable works, OCU was responsible for project management, site establishment, site management, cable installation and all works outside of the GIS area.
On the ENWL circuit scope, and during the lifecycle of the contract, OCU;
For the NGET circuit scope, OCU supplied all of the services above together with terminations and testing.