a local project’s perspective – Inside track

This post is by Ciara Shannon, founding director of the Green Finance Community Hub and Project Collette.

The Great Grid Upgrade, launched by National Grid in 2023, represents the most ambitious overhaul of Britain’s electricity network since the early 1950s, when Churchill’s government built the first 400kV ‘Supergrid’ to connect coal and nuclear plants across the countryside.

Seventy five years on, it’s happening again, only this time on a far greater scale. This isn’t just an upgrade. It’s the enhanced electrification of a nation, re-engineered for net zero and the digital age.

Excitingly, by 2030, the upgraded grid will carry 50GW of offshore wind generated power, enough to power every home in Great Britain and the equivalent of taking 5.2 million petrol cars off the road every year.

The Community Benefit Fund promises big
Unlike previous infrastructure projects, this upgrade establishes a fundamentally different relationship between the grid and the communities that host it. National Grid’s £1 billion+ Community Benefit Fund will deliver millions in annual payments and grants to towns along transmission routes, transforming local opposition into genuine partnership. That said, questions remain about how this fund will be delivered in practice, and communities will be watching closely to ensure commitments translate into tangible benefits.

The economic case is equally compelling. The upgrade will generate 130,000 new jobs and contribute £11-14.5 billion annually to the economy. Every project includes a legal requirement for at least ten per cent biodiversity improvement through habitat restoration, turning industrial infrastructure into environmental enhancement.

Trade-offs have to be navigated
Large scale infrastructure always involves trade-offs, and the concerns raised about this project deserve serious consideration.

Opposition is entirely understandable. Households could see bills rise by around £108 a year by 2031, with £60 of that coming from electricity transmission upgrades and many businesses facing 70-100 per cent hikes in transmission charges. Hundreds of new, huge 50 metre pylons are unsurprisingly sparking local resistance as people worry about scarred landscapes, falling property values and damage to tourism and cherished habitats. These are not trivial concerns; they are real impacts on real communities.

However, no option is impact free. Both pylons and offshore infrastructure carry environmental costs, requiring difficult trade-offs in the transition to net zero. Conservationists warn of habitat fragmentation on land and at sea, while analysts caution that the UK’s 2030 timetable is ambitious, given historic delivery delays, planning constraints, and global supply chain pressures. The challenge is not to find a perfect solution, but to deliver infrastructure that minimises harm and secures lasting public consent.

Cumbria is on the Frontline
Here in Cumbria, just north of Carlisle, is Harker substation. For decades, it has been the main artery carrying electricity between Scotland and England. Today, it is maxed to capacity, causing serious bottlenecks, constraining the flow of clean Scottish wind power to regions that need it. This is costing the country hundreds of millions of pounds each year in wasted energy and constraint payments, where wind generators are paid to switch off because excess power cannot be used.

The good news is that the Harker Energy Enablement Project is already under construction, reconductoring and upgrading all four existing double-circuit lines. The result is a multi-gigawatt surge in cross-border capacity using the current pylon corridor, which means no new steel giants lurching across the landscape.

Looking beyond 2030, the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO’s) Centralised Strategic Network Plan, which includes a potential second new circuit, a new 400kV switching station, would elevate Harker from a constraining bottleneck into a high capacity transmission superhighway capable of unlocking an additional 5-8GW of clean energy transfer.

Grid Upgrades will be a Game Changer
For Project Collette, that aims to be the UK’s first community led offshore wind farm off the coast of Cumbria, these grid upgrades will be a game changer. Without them, Collette’s 1.2GW output would overwhelm the grid, and the project would face millions in grid reinforcement costs. Instead, its power can fit into these upgrade plans, with enabling works capped at around £9.35-21.82 million, primarily for bay extensions and minor cabling.

Our detailed grid feasibility study modelled connections to both Harker and Hutton substations. Both are technically feasible, but Harker stands out as the lower risk choice, offering greater stability and simpler integration. All the supporting work will be focused on Harker, where new equipment will be installed to help manage electricity flows and keep the system stable and reliable.

By integrating with the Great Grid Upgrade rather than building its own separate infrastructure, Project Collette will lower costs and risk, allowing more of the value created to be invested back into local communities.

Intermittency is a challenge that needs solving
One of the upgrade’s most significant (yet often overlooked) benefits is its impact on renewable energy reliability. Britain pays over £1 billion annually in curtailment fees to offshore wind farms that must shut down because the grid cannot accommodate their output. Simultaneously, supply shortfalls during low wind periods require expensive gas-fired backup generation.

By 2032, when Harker reaches super-node status, the enhanced infrastructure will ensure that more renewable energy reaches consumers. For community-owned projects, like Project Collette, this means more hours of generation and greater financial returns that can flow directly back to local stakeholders.

Locals must have a say
While opposition to new pylons and concerns over upfront costs must be considered, failing to upgrade the grid while trying to decarbonise the economy is simply not viable. Instead, the payoff is huge: much more offshore wind and reliable clean power that delivers real climate change mitigation. This is infrastructure that serves both national and local interests. It’s a complex journey, where listening to communities can bridge divides.

The next step for us, is to reach out again to the NESO to ensure Project Collette becomes an integrated, valued component of the national grid upgrade. Local voices will shape this process at every stage, ensuring community priorities inform the big decisions.

For more on the Great Grid Upgrade, visit National Grid’s site. Also, you can find out more about this project by reading Project Collette’s grid feasibility study.