The €18m agreement seeks to protect overhead power lines against severe weather conditions that caused considerable damage in 2011/2012.
Suur-Savon Sahko is planning to replace 550 transformer substations and 950km of overhead electrical power cables with underground cables during the 2013-2017 period.
Besides generating savings due to lower operations and maintenance costs and event-related repair costs due to damage from severe weather impacts, the network upgrade is also expected to increase distribution capacity to address future demand of about 500-1,000 new customer connections annually.
The upgrade will specifically lower maintenance costs by 60%, whilst also reducing the faults, including repair services from 75 to 30 hours annually.
Suur-Savon Sähko provides electricity and district heat to over 100,000 customers in eastern Finland.
