McAlpine welcomes jobs and investment for region

Dozens of well-paid jobs maintaining power lines will become available over the next few years as a result of plans to upgrade the electricity grid.

Plans are already in place for Dumfries and Galloway College to train unemployed electricians as linemen starting next year – a first of its kind in Scotland. Apprenticeships will also be available as demand grows as a result of the £2.6billion upgrade of the ageing distribution and transmission system.

As well as creating new jobs, the upgrade will put an end to most of the power outages caused by bad weather that have plagued Dumfries and Galloway in recent years.

The upgrade is being made possible by the growth of renewable energy in the region which means the grid must be upgraded to carry the extra green energy. There will also be major upgrades to substations at Abington, Moffat and the interconnector at Gretna.

The developments were revealed after a meeting between south of Scotland MSP Joan McAlpine and executives from Scottish Power.

Ms McAlpine asked for the meeting after energy minister Fergus Ewing told her of the jobs possibilities for Dumfries and Galloway as a result of the upgrade.

 

Commenting, Ms McAlpine said:

“These are good jobs and Scottish Power told me they really need local people who understand the communities they are serving. They also need to be hard and able to work outdoors in all weather.

“The company will be using contractors to upgrade the substations and also build new power lines in future. I pressed them to do everything they can to ensure that local contractors got to bid for these contracts.

“This is a massive boost for our local economy and it is another great result for Scotland. As an outcome of the Scottish Government’s ambitious renewables policy, we have a £2.6billion investment coming to the south of Scotland.”

 

The Scottish Government is on track to reach its target of 50 per cent of Scotland’s electricity demand met from green power by 2015.