UNITED UTILITIES and city developers are pouring more than é22m into improving electrical supplies in Manchester, to resolve a power shortage hampering the city's growth.

The situation was so grave that city council cupremo Sir Howard Bernstein and bosses from top property developers such as Argent raised the issue with Philip Green, the new chief executive of Warrington-based UU.

Manchester's economic regeneration in the past decade has seen the city's power infrastructure stretched to breaking point. This led to delays in connecting new or revamped buildings.

United Utilities is to spend é12m on five new primary sub-stations in and around the city, to keep pace with the surge in property development. Developers will put in é10m.

The investment will help to maintain the reliability of electricity supplies for homes and businesses across the whole of Greater Manchester.

And the extra capacity of the new state-of-the-art equipment will help facilitate the city's growth and stand the area in good stead for decades to come.

Chief executive Philip Green said the issue was one "of the highest priority" for United Utilities.

Demand

Julie Spinks, UU's asset strat-egy and planning director, explained: "Over recent years, in Manchester city centre we have seen the demand for power increase substantially. In particular, peak demand has shifted from the winter months to the summer months - the result of more widespread installation of air conditioning in shops, offices and even new apartments.

"It is testament to the success of Manchester's regeneration, but it all puts more strain on the network, and we need to be able to match new developments to existing and planned capacity."

Since May, 2005, UU has been working with Manchester city council to identify a suitable site in the Piccadilly area for a new substation.

As previously revealed in M.E.N. Business, the favoured site is at the Travis Street car park, and UU hopes that the planning authority will be able to resolve any outstanding third party issues in the next few weeks. Once legal title passes to United Utilities, the substation could be built in 18 months.

If planning approval is obtained, the scheme could be underway by early spring, 2007, and completed by May, 2008.

Julie Spinks added: "The substation we are proposing will contain new, compact equipment that can all be housed indoors, so the visual impact of the site will be kept to a minimum."

The five new substations will be located at Travis Street, Spinningfields, Salford, North Manchester Business Park and Victoria Park.

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