How UK Power Networks minimised disruption during Leicester Square’s substation upgrade

UK Power Networks is nearing completion on an upgrade to Leicester Square’s substation, where it has turned to an innovative construction technique to minimise disruption. 

Leicester Square is one of the busiest public spaces in the United Kingdom, with thousands of locals and tourists flowing through the square each and every day. It’s also an important retail and dining location for London, and major disruption could have potentially cost local businesses thousands of pounds. 

That’s why when it came to performing an upgrade to Leicester Square’s substation, UK Power Networks had to find a way to keep disruption to a minimum. That led to the firm using a ‘megalift’ self-loading trailer for the first time, which reduced each new transformer’s delivery time by four weeks. 

The decision to use a ‘megalift’ was welcomed by the local community, with UK Power Networks and businesses communicating extensively throughout the project. This included working with businesses to design interactive hoardings, sharing video updates and hosting underground tours for about 150 visitors. A youth training scheme was also run to help lift 16–19-year-olds and their families out of fuel poverty towards the national Levelling Up agenda.

Both the ‘megalift’ and the community engagement proved so successful in the £15 million flagship project that is now drawing to a close, that project managers across the company’s sites in London, East and South East will now use them where possible in future. Similar hoardings are already being designed at a new East Ham project to protect, communicate and educate, and larger investment schemes now use video updates and QR codes to keep communities informed.

Engineers from UK Power Networks have worked with Alliance partner Clancy to finish the two-year upgrade this month ahead of schedule and budget. The project replaced three 60 MW, 132,000 V transformers which were originally installed under Leicester Square in 1991. They weigh 100 tons each and are the size of a shipping container, providing enough energy to power an area the size of Brighton. 

More than 250,000 people visit Leicester Square daily and the company worked with the Heart of London Business Alliance (HOLBA), the Society of London Theatre (SOLT), and Westminster City Council to help ensure business and tourism could continue and flourish.

Ros Morgan, Chief Executive of the Heart of London Business Alliance, noted, “UK Power Networks has been working hand in hand with HOLBA to plan the works around business needs from the outset. With the aim of minimising the impact as much as possible for our members, UK Power Networks took advantage of lockdown, advancing the works as much as possible during this period and reducing the work schedule from three to two years. This infrastructure investment is critical to building a brighter future for this great city.”

Jason Gunning, project manager at UK Power Networks, added, “Capital projects don’t get much more sensitive than this; replacing three 100-tonne transformers underneath the heart of London’s theatreland needed to not impact theatre goers, numerous businesses, architecture, and some very precious trees. To add to this, a pandemic made protecting workers in confined spaces difficult.

“Extraordinary planning, care, ingenuity, an innovative and seamless approach to on-site work and community collaboration was the recipe for success and we are sharing this so colleagues and the industry can adopt similar methods.

“This project was successfully achieved in two years, not three, giving Leicester Square increased resilience and energy capacity for decades to come, and serving one of the UK’s most heavily populated and congested areas.”