Orkney Resilience Funds From SSEN

By theorkneynews on December 19, 2017

Orkney communities are benefiting from grants totalling almost £24,000 to help them become more resilient and prepare for winter storms this year.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ (SSEN) Resilient Communities Fund is supporting four community groups across the Orkney Islands to deliver projects to help protect the welfare of those most vulnerable and enhance community facilities and communication during severe weather events.

The fund was established to support community groups, charities and non-profit making organisations in SSEN’s distribution network area, offering grants of up to £20,000 to successful applications. The fund is particularly focused on projects helping vulnerable or isolated people living in SSEN’s network areas to ensure they are supported during significant emergency events.

The fund, worth almost £265,000 in total, sees Orkney community groups awarded £23,976 this year.

Stephen Burns, Customer Operations Manager for Orkney at SSEN, said:

“Our Resilient Communities Fund is vital to help our communities better prepare and improve their own resilience plans to respond to whatever mother nature throws our way. As a responsible operator, by proactively supporting local resilience projects we can truly make a difference to the communities we serve and this collaborative approach is essential to support our customers during network outages.”

Local Orkney projects benefiting from this latest round of funding include:

A grant of £9,000 to help Stronsay Community Council improve the island’s resilience in an emergency. This includes improvements for the Stronsay Community Centre including a change over switch and a generator base stand so that it can be used as an emergency hub during power cuts and emergency weather events.
Graemsay, Hoy and Walls Community Council is receiving £3,500 to provide a resilient power supply generator hook up to an identified rest centre facility.
Eday Community Enterprises Ltd is receiving £7,500 to install an auto start panel and install a container to house a SSEN donated generator.
Peedie Kirk United Reformed Church is receiving £3,796 to upgrade the hall with provision of emergency lighting and fire detection.

SSEN’s Resilient Communities Fund will re-open for applications in 2018. To find out more about the fund, and for future announcements on the opening date of the next round, please visit ssen.co.uk/Resiliencefund.

SSEN is also encouraging its customers to be ready for winter and is recommending:

downloading its free ‘Power Track’ app to stay updated with faults in their area;
saving the national power cut helpline number, 105;
registering for SSEN’s Priority Services Register (PSR), which offers additional support during power cuts to eligible households.