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An power agency has set out a £10.6 billion five-year plan that it says will decrease family power payments and assist the nation meet its inexperienced power targets.
SP Vitality Networks, which is a subsidiary of ScottishPower, is submitting plans to power regulator Ofgem for the interval April 2026 to March 2031, during which it’s pledging to spend £10.6 billion on new and upgraded transmission infrastructure in central and southern Scotland.
It will embody, the agency stated, 12 new transmission substations, 450km of upgraded current circuits, 87km of upgraded overhead strains and 35km of underground cables, all of which it stated will assist improve the nation’s energy transmission capability.
Making this important funding now will drive a optimistic impression that may assist to stabilise and decrease shopper power payments in the long run
Nicola Connelly, SP Vitality Networks
The plan additionally features a programme of funding to make the community extra resilient, preserve current property, join as much as 19 gigawatts of recent inexperienced energy to the grid and scale back “constraint prices” – main, the agency stated, to annual financial savings of £167 per family every year by 2030.
The facility agency, which operates a community of greater than 110,000km of energy cables across the UK, additionally introduced plans to double its transmission workforce, with some 1,400 new immediately employed jobs and 11,000 additional jobs supported across the nation.
The corporate added it had already introduced £5.4 billion price of provide chain contracts with 19 companies, 17 of which it described as UK and Irish, in what it stated was “one of many largest building pushes underneath method within the UK”.
It additionally cited analysis by the Centre for Vitality Coverage on the College of Strathclyde which it stated discovered the plans might contribute “sustained financial profit” of £2 billion every year to UK society.
Nicola Connelly, SP Vitality Networks’ chief govt, stated: “We’ve got an opportunity to form a cleaner, greener future for us all. Making this important funding now will drive a optimistic impression that may assist to stabilise and decrease shopper power payments in the long run.
“If the UK desires to ship on its ambition to be a clear power superpower and capitalise on its pure sources, then it wants the electrical energy grid to match demand.
“Our marketing strategy has been developed to ship that at tempo, combining unprecedented ranges of funding with a deal with guaranteeing truthful returns for shoppers and traders.
“Authorities and business have by no means been clearer on what must be achieved and now we’d like Ofgem to match that ambition with a worth management that unlocks the capital required to finance the initiatives that may ship clear energy within the subsequent decade.”
The plan, which the agency stated marked a “step change” in contrast with its earlier £3.4 billion plan, additionally features a proposed £20 million web zero fund.
The agency stated this cash would construct on its current £5 million web zero fund, and ship monies to allow native decarbonisation initiatives, in addition to offering assist and steering to assist communities put together for and ship their very own web zero plans and initiatives.
