Britain Will Need Up to £240bn of Net Zero Upgrades

Britain’s electricity network will require up to £240bn of upgrades to support clean power targets, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has admitted.

In new estimates released by the Government, the cost of building new pylons and power lines will skyrocket in the next 24 years to achieve the Government’s net zero ambitions.

The energy department has already warned that grid upgrades will cost £80bn by 2030.

However, the latest forecasts indicate that this is just the start of a much larger upgrade programme – with households poised to foot the bill.

The costs of grid expansion are loaded onto consumers’ energy bills to pay for upgrades carried out by the UK’s monopoly transmission operators: National Grid, SSE and Scottish Power...

...Whether we might end up needing slightly less electricity is irrelevant. These are long term strategic plans, which need to be implemented years in advance. By necessity, they must build in enough capacity to handle all eventualities.

I have commented before that the £80bn upgrades presently planned for 2030 will not be enough and that NESO are already factoring in much more expenditure after 2030. This has been confirmed by NESO:

Neso has already published a “Beyond 2030” plan recommending that the UK spend £58bn on new cabling and substations for new offshore wind farms. This would be in addition to the £77bn cited by Mr Adkins.

I must also stress that none of this spending covers upgrading the local distribution network, which is variously estimated to cost hundreds of billions more.