Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde, joined SP Energy Networks CEO Frank Mitchell today to officially open a new £1 million depot facility in Kilmarnock, which will serve as the energy company’s main engineering base covering the Ayrshire and Clyde South Zone.
SP Energy Networks directly employs around 130 people in the Ayrshire area, and through contracts and services, supports a further 250 roles. The company manages more than 10,000 km of cables in the region, as well as 7,000 substations, which connects over 360,000 homes and businesses to the electricity network.
The new depot will act as the main hub for delivering maintenance work on the network, and will also oversee planned investment of more than £150 million in the Ayrshire network over the next 8 years. In the event of severe winter weather affecting Ayrshire, the Kilmarnock depot will become the main Emergency Action Centre for co-ordinating a storm response for the region.
Professor Sir Jim McDonald said:
“The new depot in Kilmarnock is an impressive facility. It will play a really important role in supporting the engineers and office teams who look after thousands of miles of the electricity network. I was delighted to come and officially open the new depot today, and it was a pleasure to speak to the men and women who are based here, and work so hard to keep the lights on in Ayrshire.”
Frank Mitchell, CEO of SP Energy Networks, said:
“We have significant investment plans for the Ayrshire region, and our new state-of-the-art facility in Kilmarnock will be at the centre of our plans. It will also be the main hub to manage our emergency response activity, such as storm events during the winter, as we have seen in the last few years.
“Over the next decade we will also be recruiting a new generation of engineers, many of whom will be apprentices and graduates. In the Ayrshire area we anticipate supporting many new roles in the coming years, as well as creating hundreds of opportunities with contractors across the region.”