Energy companies will spend £77 billion to update Great Britain’s electricity grid
National Grid, SSE, and ScottishPower have announced plans to spend up to £77 billion over five years to upgrade the electricity network in Great Britain, aiming to move from fossil fuels to clean electricity.
The companies, which manage the high-voltage power system, have submitted their plans to the regulator, Ofgem, for the years 2026 to 2031. This investment could create around 100,000 jobs.
National Grid plans to spend up to £35 billion, SSE up to £31 billion, and ScottishPower up to £10.5 billion. John Pettigrew, CEO of National Grid, said their plan is “the most significant step forward in the electricity network in a generation.”
He said: “This will almost double the amount of energy we can move around the country, help industries today and in the future switch to electricity, create new jobs, and attract investment to the UK.”
The proposals still need approval from the regulator, which will consider the need for expensive upgrades to the power system to meet climate goals. These costs are covered by energy bills, but the regulator also needs to protect customers from rising prices.
National Grid, which owns the power transmission network in England and Wales, plans to spend over £11 billion to maintain and improve its current networks. It also intends to build three major grid projects that have already been approved by the regulator through a fast-track process.
The company, part of the FTSE 100, has also proposed an investment plan of about £24 billion. This includes around £15 billion to increase network capacity and £9 billion for possible future projects to help the UK reach its clean power goals by 2030.
SSE’s transmission business, which manages power cables in northern Scotland, recently shared its plan to invest £22.3 billion in grid infrastructure. This includes £16 billion of key investments already approved by Ofgem through a fast-track process aimed at speeding up the connection of offshore wind farms to the power grid.
The proposals also include the possibility of spending an extra £9.4 billion, which would bring the total investment to around £31.7 billion by 2031. This could help create up to 37,000 jobs across the UK.
ScottishPower plans to spend £10.6 billion to build 12 new major power stations, upgrade 450 km of existing power lines, and improve 87 km of overhead lines and 35 km of underground cables.
The company that manages electricity transmission in central and southern Scotland plans to improve the power grid and connect up to 19GW of renewable energy projects. This amount of power could supply electricity to about 20 million households in the UK.
These changes will help reduce payments made to renewable energy developers when their projects are turned off to prevent too much green energy from overloading the grid. ScottishPower believes this could save households up to £167 on their energy bills by 2030.
The plan also requires ScottishPower to hire about 1,400 new workers, which could create 11,000 more jobs across the UK.
Published: 19th December 2024
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