National Grid has been granted planning permission for a £400 million upgrade of its transmission network in North Yorkshire.
Energy secretary Claire Coutinho has signed off on the development consent order application for the Yorkshire Green project, paving the way for construction to begin this summer.
The total scope of the project includes the installation of a new 400kV substation extension at Monk Fryston, a new 275kV substation at Overton, and 6.4km of overhead lines – 2.8km at 400kV and 3.6km at 275kV – to connect existing overhead lines to the new Overton substation.
The upgrade would increase network capacity across the B7a and B8 boundaries by 1.7GW and 394MW respectively, enabling more electricity to be transmitted from proposed renewable generation projects in Scotland and the North Sea down to demand centres in the south of England.
It would also maximise the benefits of the proposed 2GW subsea Eastern HVDC link from Torness in Scotland to Hawthorn Pit in England.
The Yorkshire Green project is part of National Grid’s £4.5 billion Great Grid Upgrade programme of work.
Matt Staley, onshore delivery director for National Grid, said: “I am delighted after months of consideration the government has granted development consent to build Yorkshire Green.
“This marks a major milestone for The Great Grid Upgrade, and as the first project to have been given consent to begin construction, it will help the UK to meet its net zero and energy security ambitions, reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and contribute to lower energy bills over the long-term.
“I would like to thank the local community and our stakeholders in Yorkshire for their feedback in shaping our plans and we will continue to work closely with them as the project moves forward.”
Morrison Energy Services has been selected to deliver the new overhead line and existing overhead line refurbishment, Murphy will deliver two new substations in Overton and Monk Fryston, and Hyosung and Hyundai will supply transformers to the substations.
The Yorkshire Green grid upgrade (OPN2) is one of 26 projects which Ofgem identified as suitable to be brought under the Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework.
The new framework is intended to accelerate the delivery of strategic onshore transmission network projects considered necessary to achieve the government’s target of deploying 50GW of offshore wind by 2050.
As such, projects covered by the framework will not be considered for late competition and will instead be delivered by the incumbent transmission owners. They will also be subject to output delivery incentives that reward/penalise transmission owners for their performance against target delivery dates.