Barnsley manufacturer connects remote Scottish communities

A remote Scottish community currently has a secure supply of mains electricity thanks to a specialist Barnsley manufacturer.

Innovative Support Systems, which produces structural supports for tunnels and embankments, has created bridges across two huge ravines so contractors are able to transport heavy vehicles and equipment across to build a new power line.

The company, which also has contracts with Network Rail, London Underground and the Canal and River Trust, has secured free business support from Enterprising Barnsley, which is run by Barnsley Council.

Since becoming established in 2010, Innovative Support Systems has seen growth every year, and has doubled in the last year alone.

The new overhead line on the remote Scottish peninsula of Kintyre will enable an area that regularly sees communities cut off for days when power lines come down. Furthermore, additional wind farms can now feed electricity back into the National Grid.

Construction of the line is part of a £200m project by Scottish and Southern Energy which should be complete by October this year.

Contractors installing the new power line needed to build a special haul road to get heavy equipment across the mountains and ravines of the peninsula in south west Scotland.

Innovative Support Systems aided the build of giant bridges across two ravines, each 80 metres wide, in just ten weeks, so that 132-tonne transformers can be transported across the mountainous terrain.

The bridges were built using Innovative Support Systems’ unique RamWall, a series of mesh boxes that can be assembled on site and filled with material recycled at the location. As well as supplying the steel mesh, the company trained contractors to build the finished product.

Phil Richardson, ISS director, said: “It’s great to be able to help sort out a really tricky problem like this and it’s pleasing to think that we are helping to bring a secure supply of electricity to people living in isolated areas and help bring power back from windfarms in the other direction. It shows what a versatile product RamWall is and how easy it is to use.”

The company, which is headquartered in Mapplewell and has a manufacturing base at Oaks Business Park, is being given advice on marketing, HR and health and safety by business coaches from Enterprising Barnsley.