Race for clean power surges ahead as new electricity superhighway greenlit
Press release
- Publication date
- Industry sector
- Transmission Network
- Licence type
- Electricity Transmission Licence
A £2 billion funding package has today (Friday 15 November) been awarded to build a proposed new subsea and underground 196km cable between Scotland and the north of England which will help boost energy security, cut bills and hit Government green targets.
Flagged by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) as an essential element in achieving the Government’s Clean Power 2030 ambition, Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1) is a high voltage electricity superhighway able to transport 2 gigawatts of homegrown wind generated electricity between Torness, East Lothian and Hawthorn Pit, County Durham. A gigawatt (GW) is equivalent to one billion watts, and one gigawatt hour (GWh) of electricity is enough to power one million homes for one hour. Most of the 196km cable will be under the North Sea, with the remaining 20km of cables underground linking the cable to substations and converter stations in Scotland and England.
The project will reduce Great Britain’s reliance on volatile international gas markets by further harnessing the power of homegrown North Sea wind. NESO’s recent Clean Power 2030 Report has also shown that the project will deliver annual saving of over £870m by reducing the need to compensate British wind generators who are currently asked to turn off production during times of high wind due to lack of grid capacity. This in turn will help drive down consumer bills.
As part of its mission to rapidly upgrade the energy system with a minimum cost to customers, Ofgem has identified over £43m of savings which have been cut from the project costs without impacting delivery or quality. Communities that host the infrastructure in Scotland and North-East England are also set to benefit from a £7.9m social value and community benefit fund.
Beatrice Filkin, Ofgem Director of Major Projects, said: “Today's announcement takes us another step closer to achieving Great Britain’s 2030 Clean Power ambitions. It means customers can reap the benefits of abundant homegrown wind faster, while also being increasingly shielded from volatile imported gas prices.
“Our fast-track process provides developers with access to some initial upfront funding from the projected budget, so they can secure the supply chain commitments needed to secure the sought-after materials to deliver this project as soon as possible.”
She added: “However streamlining our process does not mean we’ve handed a blank cheque to the developers. We’ve built in safeguards which mean we can step in where needed to ensure they deliver maximum efficiency and benefit to customers.”
EGL1 is the second of 26 critical energy projects, worth an estimated £20billion to successfully complete Ofgem’s new fast track Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework. ASTI speeds up the funding process for projects by up to two years, allowing electricity generated by offshore wind to be delivered to British customers sooner.
Notes to editors
NESO’s Clean Power 2030
In November 2024, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) published its Clean Power 2030 Report which outlined pathways for how Great Britain could reach a clean power system by 2030.
The networks element of this plan includes Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1) as one of the key projects that is crucial to delivering the Government’s net zero ambitions.
Ofgem is keen to support delivery of the 2030 clean power goal and is working with government ahead of it publishing its full plan in December.
For further detail on the plan see the relevant section of the NESO website: Clean Power 2030 | National Energy System Operator.
For more detail on the network element of the NESO report, please refer to the Networks Annex.
Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1)
Eastern Green Link 1 (EGL1) is a planned 2GW high voltage direct current (HVDC) multi directional subsea cable to be built between the Torness area in East Lothian, Scotland and Hawthorn Pit in County Durham, England.
This 196km electricity would transport homegrown energy from North Sea windfarms and power to around two million homes.
The bulk of the cable (176km) would be subsea with the remaining 20km of cable undergrounded onshore, with substations and converter stations at either end, able to feed electricity into the transmission network.
The project is being developed by a partnership between SP Energy Networks and National Grid Electricity Transmission.
National Grid has published research that found that there will be an estimated 400,000 job opportunities for a net zero energy workforce by 2050, including around 150,000 jobs anticipated in Scotland and the North of England, some of which are expected to support the delivering of Eastern Green Link 1 and Eastern Green Link 2.
For more information on Eastern Green Link 1 including the social value and community benefit fund please contact the project team.
Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI)
Delivering Net Zero requires a huge amount of new infrastructure. The Government’s ambition is to build 50GW of offshore wind to be constructed by 2030.
This new infrastructure is needed to carry electricity from offshore sites to homes and businesses, but we need it to be built at speed to meet Government’s target.
The Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework has been designed to fast track strategically important energy transmission projects.
It streamlines the onshore transmission regulatory approval process and ensures robust consumer protection to allow network infrastructure to be built faster, accelerating build times by up to two years and unlocking capital investment to meet the Government’s target of 50GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and a decarbonised power grid by 2035.
A total of 26 projects have been identified by Ofgem for progression under the ASTI process.
If all ASTI projects are delivered by their optimal delivery dates, we expect consumers will see a net benefit of up to £2.1bn in terms of reduced constraint costs and carbon savings. However, this consumer benefit is contingent upon timely project delivery.
For further detail please see the ASTI decision: Decision on accelerating onshore electricity transmission investment.