National Grid has accelerated engineering works to address a bottleneck in connecting low carbon projects to the electricity network in South West England and Wales.
The 82km upgrade of one its high voltage overhead electricity lines, between Bramley in Hampshire and Melksham in Wiltshire, has been brought forward to help accelerate the connection of 175 clean energy projects to the grid, says the company.
The £90 million investment includes replacing conductors – the wires strung between the 229 transmission towers (known as pylons) on the route – with new cables which can operate at a higher temperature and therefore allow more power to pass through the transmission circuit.
The upgrade of approximately 3000MVA (Megavolt-Amperes) will allow increased flow of electricity out of South West England on the high voltage network, removing a constraint for the 175 projects looking to connect in the region which currently have connection dates of 2028 and beyond.
The project has been brought forward a year and will now begin in January 2024, finishing in October 2025, with National Grid – in partnership with the ESO – discussing accelerated connection dates with customers as part of each individual project’s development.
