Smith Brothers were engaged to design and build a 4 MVA Solar scheme in Kendal. The cable route involved installing approximately 4.5 kilometers of llkv infrastructure from the exit point sub station situated on farmland across agricultural land and 3 kilometers of type 3/4 carriageway installation in Cumbria public highways. The new llkV cable ran to a teed connection provided by Electricity North West into an existing llkV cable connection point adjacent to Kendal Park side Road llkv Primary Sub Station. SBC team were up against several challenges to deliver the scheme on time, the cable route was particularly challenging due inclement weather. The cable route was constructed in a period of heavy floods were rainfall fell on catchments that were already saturated and resulted in high river levels and flooding throughout Cumbria and further afield.
SBC were sufficiently resourced and adapted well to the changing needs of the contract, the mains route involved crossing 3 bridges and drilling of three watercourses at Peasey, Saint Sundays and Strictly Becks. The bridges were damaged due to the floods, working plans had to be altered on a weekly basis which involved interacting with Cumbria Highways the environmental agency and Kendal’s bridge authorities. SBC were responsible for all formalities including but not limited to arranging section 50 notices, traffic management, 3rd party easement, flood defense consents and P28 Studies. Close liaison with Cumbria Council and the bridge authorities in a difficult period ensured needs of the development were understood, potential challenges were anticipated with solutions planned in advance to achieve the target end dates set by our customer.
SBC gained accreditation from Electricity North West to undertake all works including the closing the joint to energise the Network. ENWL undertook the HV shutdown to facilitate SBC undertaking the closing joint. A Breech joint was installed from the existing 3 core, 95mm2, ACAS cable to the 3 x 1 core, aluminum, XLPE cable.
The contestable works scope adopted by Electricity North West included; Design of the ENWL network extension.
Excavation of trench work suitable for the installation of 3 x 1 core, 300mm2, aluminum conductor, triplex cable from the POC to the exit point substation. Supply & Installation of triplex terminations.
Establishment of a new Schneider Electric RN6C-T1/21 VIP300 self-powered over-current and earth fault protection ring main unit, close coupled to MU6/ N32/21 metering unit within a GRP housing.
Pre commissioning checks and jointing of the cables before handover to ENWL
