National Grid publishes plan to upgrade UK’s electricity network

• 1 year, 9 months ago (2022-07-11)
• David Flin

Europe 1061 Transmission 181

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UK’s National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) has published details of a £54 billion plan, “Pathway to 2030 including the Holistic Network Design (HND)”, to upgrade the country’s electricity network to handle rapid expansion in offshore wind energy.

The UK Government intends to have 50 GW of offshore wind capacity operational by 2030, up from the current 10 GW. The new upgraded network is expected to be able to cope with the addition of 23 GW. The upgrade plan is for a single, integrated approach to support electricity delivery from offshore wind.

The HND primarily includes project in offshore wind that have secured seabed leases. National Grid ESO said that compared with a design that individually connects wind farms, the planned concerted approach will save £5.5 billion in costs by 2030.