Tickenham to Portishead

Current construction activity

Overview – Summer 2023

National Grid is moving into the final stage for completing the north section of the Hinkley Connection route between Sandford and Seabank substations.   

The 68 T-pylon structures between Sandford substation and Portbury were completed, with the final diamond shaped insulators lifted into place on a pylon between Yatton and Kenn in July 2023.  

The innovative T-pylons will soon join the new line of 27 lattice pylons erected between the River Avon and Seabank substation. The combined total of 95 new pylons will be energised by the end of 2024. Before then, the last section of conductors will be hung from the T-pylons between the west end of Nailsea and Tickenham.  

Using the T-pylon design, reduces the height of the new infrastructure by a third. At 35 metres high they are shorter than National Grid's traditional lattice transmission pylons and take up far less room on the land. 

To make way for the new connection route, we are removing 249 existing 132,000 volt lattice pylons and overhead wires stretching 67 kilometres from the Somerset landscape. 99 percent of the lattice pylons have now been removed, including the last of the remaining pylons within Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve. 

Reinstatement of the land along the connection route is underway and will continue through to 2025. 

Thank you from everyone working on the project for your patience and understanding as we work to towards full completion of this project which will play such a key role in helping the UK meet its net zero ambitions by transmitting cleaner, homegrown, energy around the UK – enough to power 6 million homes and businesses. 

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Take a look at our detailed map

Tickenham to Portishead timeline