Cowdenbeath Primary pupils energised by SP Energy Networks visit

32 pupils of Cowdenbeath Primary School in Fife today (18 June) teamed up with SP Energy Networks, which owns and manages the network of cables and power lines for Central and Southern Scotland, to support the Power Champion campaign – an educational initiative which aims to encourage children to prepare for power emergency situations.

Primary 6 pupils were challenged to work with their classmates and designate a class Power Champion to prepare a checklist of dos and don’ts and organise their classmates to help them stay safe during a power cut. With the help of Peter Wardlaw, SP Energy Networks Engineer, the pupils staged a power cut drill and were given tips on how to stay safe this summer when playing outdoors.
 

Peter Wardlaw, SP Energy Networks, said: “We’re delighted to work with pupils at Cowdenbeath Primary School to help educate them on how to stay safe in the event of a power cut. The children showed great teamwork and initiative to prepare for the power cut drill, which will be help keep them safe in the unlikely event of a power emergency happening. Now they have a checklist for emergencies and know they can call SP Energy Networks for help.”

Robbie Devlin, classroom teacher at Cowdenbeath Primary School, said: “It’s important that our children know to stay safe when they’re outside playing during the summer holidays.

“It can be easy to take electricity for granted so when we don’t have it we need to be prepared to know who to seek advice from to get us back on power. It’s fantastic that the children have been given top tips on what to do should they experience a power cut and how to stay safe during the school holidays.”

As a distributor of power, SP Energy Networks restores supplies as quickly as possible should a fault occur and while loss of power is rare, SP Energy Networks is keen to prepare schools for power loss situations and give advice on how to deal with power cuts should they occur.

SP Energy Networks has launched a new hotline number for people to call in the event of a power emergency – 0800 092 9290 from landlines and 0330 101 0222 from mobile numbers.

SP Energy Networks top tips for being prepared include:

• Keep the emergency hotline number (on landlines 0800 092 9290 and on mobiles 0330 1010 222) to hand and inform SP Energy Networks as soon as you experience problems with your electricity supply. Log onto spenergynetworks.co.uk for all other general enquiries
   
• If electricity is crucial to your health (for instance, if you use medical equipment at home) customers should ask to be included on the SP Energy Networks priority service register by contacting them on  0330 10 10 444 or by using the online form at www.spenergynetworks.co.uk
   
• Customers should check they have the following items in stock:

- Torches with charged batteries or a wind up dynamo torch
- Keep a battery power radio in your house, as you may be able to receive updates on any incident
- An analogue telephone – most modern phones rely on an electricity supply in addition to the phone line, but an analogue phone can work on just the phone line
 

For further information, please contact Joe Boyle or Georgia Lea at Stripe Communications on 0131 561 8685 or email powerchampion@stripecommunications.com

Notes to Editors:

• SP Energy Networks (SPEN) is the licensed Electricity Distributor (DNO) for Central & Southern Scotland and for Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales and North Shropshire. They have 30,000 substations (one substation for every 100 customers), 40,000km overhead lines (once around the globe), and 70,000km underground cables.
   
• SPEN also operates the Transmission Network in Central and Southern Scotland. They take electricity generated from power stations, windfarms and various other utilities and transport it through their vast transmission network, consisting of over 4000 kilometres of overhead and 320 kilometers of underground lines. They have 129 transmission substations in their network that help us to manage extra high voltage electricity supplies.
   
• They are a substantial employer with a workforce of 3000 internal employees based at 17 locations in the South of Scotland and 17 locations in England and Wales. They engage around 5000 contractors across these areas. They operate in three of the UK's largest cities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Liverpool) accounting for 1.6m (43%) of their customers, as well as three significant rural areas (Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway and North Wales).
   
• From 2015 to 2023 SP Energy Networks plans to invest over £4 billion into the electricity network. To keep power supplies on the company currently manages over 110,000km of power cables and 30,000 substations across their network area.