Millions spent on 95 miles of power cables

ENWL chief executive officer Ian Smyth said the work would reduce power cuts

About £40m is to be spent replacing 95 miles (154km) of overhead power lines in Cumbria.

The work is part of a £2bn project by Electricity North West (ENWL) which said it was its biggest ever single project in the county.

The operator said it would reduce power cuts by 20%.

Chief executive officer Ian Smyth said the company would "deliver all this investment while keeping our part of bills low".

He said: "When you pay your electricity bill to your chosen supplier, around £100 a year – that’s less than 30p a day – comes to Electricity North West to enable this investment."

Millions of heat pumps

The plan, approved by industry regulator Ofgem, will increase the capacity of the network, which is made up of 35,400 miles (57,000 km) of underground cables and overhead lines and thousands of electricity substations.

The network would be reinforced at various points across the region and a new substation at Harker would increase capacity, ENWL said.

This would enable more renewable energy to be generated, it added.

The company said it expected demand for power to increase by a third by 2030.

This is partly due to the estimated 1.4m new electric vehicles and more than a million heat pumps it expects will be installed by 2040.