| News
Project map is first of its kind in the UK
The country’s largest electricity distributor, is the first in the industry to launch an online map showing where over 100
miles of overhead cables have been undergrounded.
he interactive project
demonstrates the electricity
company’s achievements in
restoring many historic views
across the countryside,
showing where power lines
have been undergrounded in Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty and National Parks.
The project map also encourages people to
suggest which others power lines could be
considered in the East and South East of
England, where UK Power Networks delivers
power (it also keeps the lights on in London
where most electricity cables are underground).
Viewers can log on to learn about completed
projects totaling 170km (under orange ‘pins’)
and planned projects (blue ‘pins’). The map is
constantly updated as projects are planned,
started and finished.
The map was the result of UK Power
Networks’ working in collaboration with
Yes&Pepper, a London-based ideas agency.
The tool was built based on client-supplied
T
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk
information and continuous tests, with weekly
calls and regular reviews in place for further
development. The team managed to turn it
around in ten weeks.
The inspiration for the project map came
from the success of UK Power Networks’
existing power cut map, which enables people
to see the progress to restore supplies after any
power cuts throughout London, the South and
South East of England. Since last summer,
relevant customer tweets have been to the map
in real time, and other power companies have
started to follow its lead.
Jenny Carter from the digital team at UK
Power Networks oversaw the map design. She
said: “Ofgem encourages us to carry out
undergrounding works in AONBs by providing
special funding, but we wanted to take this one
step further and share the positive impact this
initiative has on the UK’s protected countryside,
and engage further with local communities.
“We provide the expertise and manpower to
underground these lines, allowing local
residents and tourists to fully appreciate the
surroundings. Such work also increases the
reliability of power supplies in the area and this
map celebrates all that hard work. We’re
looking forward to hearing what people think of
it, and will continue to update and improve the
online map in future.”
Ross Peet, managing partner at Yes&Pepper,
said: “When dealing with large data, it’s vital for
the information to be reported in a visual
manner, to allow easy access and offer an
overall understanding in a matter of seconds.
We’ve been working hand in hand with our
client to build this innovative, user-centric
project, always fine-tuning it for an optimal
experience online. It’s been a real technical
challenge for Yes&Pe pper to pull everything
together so quickly and accurately during
testing, but the end result is incredibly
efficient.”
See:
www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/aonb/map.html
July 2017 | Farming Monthly | 07