Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has announced the opening of its £285,000 Resilient Communities Fund across central southern England, with up to £20,000 available to charities and local groups who wish to undertake a resilience project to help protect their communities in the event of an emergency.
Building on the success of previous rounds of funding, SSEN is looking to continue its work in helping communities most at risk on the rare occasions there is a prolonged power cut, for example during a storm or similar weather-related emergency.
Reflecting on the fund’s success to date, Morven Smith, SSEN’s Head of Community Investment, said:
“£940,000 was awarded to projects in the first two years of the fund and we are looking for communities to continue the good work they have started and ensure the fund continues to make a positive impact.
“Being a responsible member of the local communities where we distribute electricity is really important to us, and that is why we are so keen to encourage as many people as possible to apply for funding. Over the past two years, we have seen awards being made across our entire area in the south of England and I’ve been really encouraged to see such a diverse range of successful applications.
“I am looking forward to seeing the new applications when they start coming in, and also working with the local emergency services and other groups to help plan for, and react to, any emergencies their communities may face.”
More than 130 awards have been made to community groups across central southern England so far, and SSEN has pledged to continue the fund until 2023 using a proportion of the income it receives from industry regulator Ofgem in relation to its stakeholder engagement performance.
Guidelines and applications forms are available on SSEN’s website at www.ssen.co.uk/RCF/England/. The closing date for applications is the 13th August 2017, with awards to be made in October 2017.
