Rochester Village Hall becomes a community hub for its residents with a Northern Powergrid Foundation funded generator and battery.
Rochester Village Hall applied, with the support of Hexham MP, Guy Opperman, and successfully received a grant of £20,000 from the Northern Powergrid Foundation to provide a gas-powered cooker and a storage battery, alongside a LPG-powered generator.
The funding enables Rochester Village Hall to act as a community hub for the residents of Rochester, Northumberland, by providing heat and light in the event of power cut.
The project is compete with the community hub to be fully operational. Rochester was recently impacted by storm Isha, a January 2024 storm that caused disruption across Northern Powergrid's network, particularly within Northumberland, County Durham and Tyne and Wear with wind speeds reaching a high of 99mph.
Storm Isha was the first outing for Rochester Village Hall's contingency plan due to the community of Rochester being without power for over 36 hours. Through the support of the Foundation and the project planning of the village hall trustees the community showed resilience. At the village hall residents were provided with heating, lighting, food and entertainment during the power interruption.
David Pentney, Chair of Rochester Village Hall said “Thanks to the funding from The Northern Powergrid Foundation the community of Rochester is now more prepared and resilient if we experience a prolonged power outage in the future. The funding has enabled us to buy a generator and battery assets and will help support around 300 people. The money will make such a difference to people’s lives as they will be able to come to the hall, keep warm and access power during an emergency situation.”
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In the picture L-R: Louise Lowes, Northern Powergrid Foundation Trustee, pictured with Jilli Rogerson, Nick Hall, Lynn Hall and David Pentney, Chair of Rochester Village Hall stood outside Rochester Village Hall.
The challenges for Rochester, Northumberland, residents
Due to the possibility of future power interruptions in the rural village of Rochester the village hall trustees identified a need to increase their resilience to better support the local community.
The solution for Rochester, Northumberland, residents
The trustees identified a need for generator and energy storage batteries to allow the hall to remain open for the local community to safely reside during times of power interruptions.
Support from the Northern Powergrid Foundation
The Northern Powergrid Foundation supported the community project with a £20,000 donation to go towards a generator and energy storage batteries.
More about the Northern Powergrid Foundation
The Northern Powergrid Foundation’s mission, complementing Northern Powergrid’s ambition to be a force for good in the communities it serves, is to support communities most affected by changes in the economy, environment, and society because of the shifting energy landscape. This will be achieved by supporting projects focused on helping to tackle energy resilience during emergency events, vulnerability, fuel poverty, levelling the rural divide, innovation, social support, and community collaboration. Funds are available to support the communities across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire served by Northern Powergrid.