Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) has announced it is to upgrade overhead power lines in Toome, Randalstown, Cranfield and Staffordstown.

Around £1.1m is to be invested in the programme of work in the electricity infrastructure.

NIE workers have started replacing overhead lines, installing heavier poles and cutting back trees and vegetation from the network.

Alwyn Hunt, NIE project manager, said: "We will be upgrading approximately 51 kilometres or 32 miles of overhead line and modernising the network in Randalstown and the surrounding areas. Many of the electricity lines and poles we are replacing are over 40 years old.

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"We have designed the work to ensure homes and businesses in the area will be affected as little as possible. However, in order for our employees to work safely on the network there will be times when we have to shut down electricity supplies.

"Any customer likely to have their electricity supply affected by this investment programme has been written to and as with all planned electricity outages, we will also issue notification cards in advance of the date and time of the interruptions."

(CD/JP)