Electricity North West owns, operates and maintains the North West’s electricity distribution network, connecting 2.4 million properties, and more than 5 million people in the region to the National Grid. You can watch a quick summary of what we do here.

The network covers Cumbria, Lancashire and Greater Manchester as well as small areas of North East Cheshire and North Yorkshire and North Derbyshire, and varies from isolated farms in rural areas, to urban centres such as Manchester.

We work hard in rural areas to minimise our impact on the environment, while ensuring that the lights stay on for everyone in the region. We work closely with landowners over our infrastructure, and we’re here 24 hours a day if anyone needs us in a power cut.

Key issues in rural areas include our essential tree-cutting programme. We closely manage trees that are close to our lines to prevent them from falling and causing power cuts during high winds. In key areas where we have lots of birds we can also attach special diverters to our lines, to make them more visible to prevent collisions.

Finally, another essential area we work in with our rural communities is our programme to move overhead lines underground. We spend millions each year working with National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty to identify the most visually intrusive lines, and then invest to move them underground to help restore the beauty of the natural landscape.

For more information, visit www.electricitynorthwest.co.uk