The Great Grid Upgrade is the largest overhaul of the grid in generations. It will play a large part in the UK government’s plan to boost homegrown power, helping the UK switch to clean energy and make sure our electricity network is fit for the future; carrying more clean and secure energy from where it’s generated to where it's needed.
The UK’s newest electricity interconnector, which stretches for 757km to join rural Lincolnshire with Revsing in Denmark, has been named as the longest land and subsea HVDC interconnector.
Members of the project team were joined by a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ adjudicator at the UK converter site in Bicker Fen on Tuesday 30 April to officially receive the title and certificates.
The Network Innovation Allowance funded project aims to develop a tool to coordinate the installation and operation of advanced power flow control (APFC) devices like Smart Wires’ SmartValve™, to avoid network constraints and boost the amount of clean energy flowing.
As electricity generation and demand decarbonises, the way power flows across the network is becoming more complex to manage, with transmission circuits easily becoming unequally loaded and less efficient at carrying energy.
The ASTI projects form a key part of The Great Grid Upgrade, which is building the significant new electricity network infrastructure required to reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels by connecting 50GW of offshore wind by 2030.
Networks have so far sent offers to 203 projects totalling 7.8GW with an average connection acceleration of 6.5 years. In total 393 projects are eligible for the programme with the further 190 projects able to receive accelerated offers once they have progressed through the connection offer process. Last month a solar farm near Bridgwater in Somerset became the first project to be energised under this scheme.
National Grid’s school engagement programme, conducted in partnership with social enterprise Connectr, has achieved a remarkable milestone, reaching its target of booking over 100,000 student interactions a year and a half ahead of schedule.
The eight-week initial consultation, which begins on 23 April, shares proposals for Eastern Green Link 3 (EGL 3) and Eastern Green Link 4 (EGL 4) projects – two new, primarily subsea high voltage direct current (HVDC) electricity links, with associated infrastructure, between Scotland and England.
National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is jointly developing EGL 3 with SSEN Transmission (SSEN) and EGL 4 with SP Energy Networks (SPEN).
National Grid and its contractors Balfour Beatty and GE Vernova’s Grid Solutions have been working since June 2019 to build a replacement for Littlebrook 400kV substation.
The new facility will help to reduce the use of sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆), a gas commonly used in the electrical industry to prevent short circuits and to keep the network safe and reliable.
Running from Bicker Fen converter station in Lincolnshire to one in southern Jutland, Denmark, across both land and sea, Viking Link is sharing British and Danish wind power as both countries become hubs of clean energy in Europe, acting as cornerstone nations for the North Sea super grid of the future.
The Great Grid Upgrade is the largest overhaul of the grid in generations. It will play a large part in the UK government’s plan to boost homegrown power, helping the UK switch to clean energy and make sure our electricity network is fit for the future; carrying more clean, secure energy from where it’s generated to where it is needed.