Power Distribution & Main Panels
Main intake panels, LV switchgear and submains for large buildings across the South East
The Lake Electrical team designs and installs power distribution for large commercial buildings: the main intake panel and LV switchgear, the submains and the boards they feed, the DNO connection where the incoming supply has to be uprated, and the phased changeover that keeps the building running. The building work around a panel is subcontracted, but the electrical design and every connection is ours. This is the level of work most local electricians will not touch.
NICEIC approved contractor. SafeContractor accredited. DBS-checked engineers. Trading since 2008.
Power distribution installation across the South East
We are an electrical contractor based in Battle in East Sussex, carrying out power distribution installation across Kent, East Sussex, Surrey and the wider South East: load assessment and maximum demand, main intake panel design, LV switchgear, submains, distribution board upgrades, three phase supply and the DNO connection, on containment shared with data cabling. Most of it is in buildings run by an estates or facilities team: universities, schools and education, offices and commercial property, industrial sites that cannot lose supply, and churches and houses of worship. It sits at the top end of our commercial electrical installations, among the rest of our services.
The difference between distribution that grew and distribution that was designed
Most of the systems we are asked to look at were never designed. They accumulated. The original intake was sized for how the building was used in 1974. When the main board filled, a small board went in beside it off a spare way, then a third off the second. Protective devices no longer discriminate, so a failed water heater in a first floor kitchen trips a device upstream and takes out the whole floor. And since nobody can say what feeds what, isolating one room for an afternoon becomes a fortnight of emails about who might be affected.
A designed system starts with the load. We establish what the building draws, apply diversity on how the rooms are really used, and add what is planned, the chargers, the heating, the extra floor of desks. That gives a maximum demand figure worth putting to a DNO. The intake and switchgear are sized for it with headroom decided rather than hoped for, submains are sized for the boards they feed, and protective devices are coordinated so a fault clears at the device nearest it. Then it is written down, on a schedule that says what feeds what, so a fault in one room stays an inconvenience in one room and a facilities manager can isolate a floor for a contractor on a Tuesday without negotiating with the whole building first.
The changeover is then planned around the building rather than the building around the changeover. We swapped a £310k main panel at a Chichester university lab over three days on backup generators, without stopping the science.
What a power distribution project with us includes
Lead times, and why this conversation starts early
A supply upgrade is not a quick job, and we would rather say so at the first meeting than the third. Where the existing supply has capacity in it, the programme is ours. Where it does not, the date stops being yours and starts being the DNO’s, and nothing we do makes that faster. What starting early buys is choice: a scheme phased across two or three budget years, an interim arrangement that gets one floor working, or a shutdown timed for the summer holiday rather than one nobody chose in November. Where the DNO application is ours to make, we make it and follow it through. [[CONFIRM: whether you want to state the DNO application work you handle on the client’s behalf, and typical lead times, so we can publish real figures rather than describing the process]]
The building work, and one point of responsibility
An intake or main panel job is rarely only electrical. There is usually a wall to open up, a plinth to form, an intake room to fit out, fire stopping to make good, sometimes a doorway to widen because the panel will not go in. That building work is subcontracted to builders we have used before, but the electrical design and every connection is ours. We programme and manage it and price it into the job at the start, so you have one programme and one person to ask. Much of it arrives as a consulting engineer’s specification or a main contractor’s package, so tender documentation and public sector O&M requirements are familiar ground. Where the audio visual sits on the same contract, our sister company OBAV lets the group tender for both.
When an EICR is what starts this
Most of this work begins with an inspection rather than a plan. An EICR looks hardest at the intake and the boards, and that is where distribution that grew gives itself away: devices that do not discriminate with those upstream, submains with no evidence of how they were sized, an earthing arrangement that no longer matches the supply, and enclosures that cannot be reached or isolated safely. If you have been told the board is full, the inspection is the first step, because it gives you a documented picture to design and budget from.
Accredited and experienced on intake and panel work
We have been working on commercial installations since 2008, as a NICEIC approved contractor, SafeContractor accredited, with DBS-checked engineers, which is what tendered and public sector work asks for.
University, intake panel. A £310k intake panel, swapped over three days on backup generators, with no loss of power to the labs.
Recent work
What clients say
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Why estates and facilities teams choose the Lake Electrical team
Lake Electrical has been trading since 2008, family run and owner led. The owners run the jobs themselves, so the person who walked the risers with you is the one who prices the scheme and the one answerable for it on the changeover weekend. Our engineers have all been with us at least two years. Call in working hours and you get a person in the office, not a voicemail.
We are not the cheapest, and we are straight about that. What you pay for is distribution sized for the building rather than for the quotation, work carried out to BS 7671, and a plain account of what the installation needs, including the finding that makes the figure larger.
Power distribution questions answered
How to tell whether a board or the supply needs upgrading
The quickest test is what happens when you try to add something. If there are no spare ways, or the only ways left are in a board fed off another board, the distribution is the limit. If the supply is near its agreed capacity, that is a different job on a different timescale. A load assessment settles which.
How long a supply upgrade takes and what the DNO controls
Where the supply stays as it is, the programme is ours. Where it has to be uprated, the DNO owns the critical dates through their application, design, quotation, acceptance and connection process, and reinforcement beyond your building extends that further. We tell you at the survey which of the two you are in. [[CONFIRM: typical DNO lead times you are willing to publish]]
Whether the building has to be shut down
Rarely all of it, and almost never at a time you did not choose. Changeovers are phased, so the building keeps operating while the distribution behind it is replaced. We changed a main panel at a Chichester university lab over three days on backup generators without cutting the power to the experiments, so working around a live building is normal for us. There is usually one planned outage at the intake, and starting early is what puts it somewhere that suits you.
How the work is priced and whether a survey comes first
The survey comes first, and at intake or main panel level that means a visit with the covers off rather than a look at a drawing. We price on the design, the panels and switchgear, the submains and boards, the subcontracted building work and the phasing, with the DNO’s own charges shown separately. You get the full scope and cost before anything is agreed.
What an unsatisfactory EICR on a distribution board means
It means at least one C1, C2 or FI observation was recorded, and on a distribution board that is usually a C2, potentially dangerous, needing remedial work rather than evacuation. Get each observation explained, separate what must be done this term from what belongs in a capital bid, and price the panel work once rather than patching it three times. A C1 is the exception, made safe at the time.
Request a quote for your distribution or supply upgrade
If the board is full or the supply is the limit, start with a survey and a load assessment.
Planning a panel upgrade or a new supply? Request a quote. Prefer a chat first? Get in touch, or call the team on [[NAP: phone number]].
We work across Kent, East Sussex, Surrey and the wider South East, with commercial work reaching sites such as Chichester.