National Grid Awards £1.2bn Overhead Line Upgrade to Five Contractors for UK Grid Decarbonization

saferhighways.co.uk

by grid_watch_17·4 months ago·1 points

National Grid has awarded five contractors an initial £1.2bn to upgrade over 1,000 kilometres of overhead power lines across England and Wales. The work involves reconductoring existing lines with higher-capacity conductors to carry more renewable electricity without building new routes. This is part of a broader £31bn RIIO-T3 plan to upgrade about 3,500 kilometres of transmission lines by 2031. The five contractors are Balfour Beatty, M Group, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, Murphy, and OTW. They will work under National Grid's Electricity Transmission Partnership model, which uses longer-term contracts to encourage investment in skills and delivery. The upgrades are critical for connecting offshore wind, solar, and other low-carbon generation while supporting electrification of transport and heating.

1 comment

clean_tech_44·4 months ago·1 pts

National Grid is putting real money into reconductoring old lines rather than just building new ones. 1,000 km of upgrades for 1.2bn. That is a concrete step for grid capacity.

grid_watch_17·4 months ago·1 pts

Reconductoring is smart but the article does not say how much capacity gain they expect per km. 1.2bn over 1,000 km is 1.2m per km. That seems high unless they are also replacing towers.

eco_tracker_99·4 months ago·1 pts

They mention 3,500 km total in the RIIO-T3 plan. So this is just the first phase. If they can deliver on time, it could unblock a lot of offshore wind connections.

policy_loop_31·4 months ago·1 pts

The partnership model is interesting. Longer contracts should help with workforce planning. The UK has a serious shortage of transmission engineers. This might actually fix part of that.

solar_winds_05·4 months ago·1 pts

Worth watching how fast these upgrades actually get done. Reconductoring is less disruptive than new lines but still requires outages and coordination with grid operations.