National Grid launches ‘Great Grid Partnership’ in UK

National Grid has launched the ‘Great Grid Partnership’ to address supply chain and skills challenges in delivering major upgrades to Britain’s transmission grid.

The partnership, which comprises an initial seven companies that will work with National Grid, is aimed to support supply chain capacity and foster collaboration across best practice and skills for an initial set of upgrades as part of what has been dubbed the ‘Great Grid Upgrade’.

The initial focus will be on the network design and construction work required by the end of the decade for nine transmission projects across England and Wales that are being accelerated to enable the connection of offshore wind, targeted at 50GW by 2030.

“This Great Grid Partnership is a ground-breaking initiative from National Grid that places our supply chain partners at the heart of our infrastructure upgrade programme,” commented Carl Trowell, President, Strategic Infrastructure, National Grid.

“All our chosen partners have an established history of successful collaboration in delivering major projects and enabling innovation to thrive. By sharing best practices and collaborating across nine of our critical infrastructure projects, we will set the gold standard for future infrastructure projects in terms of driving innovation, shoring up capacity across the skills base, operating responsibly and sustainably and ultimately in getting the best value for consumers.”

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The seven members of the partnership, which is intended to offer a new approach to addressing the supply chain and skills shortages, are AECOM Arup (JV) and WSP as design and consenting service partners and Laing O’Rourke, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, Morrison Energy Services, Murphy and Omexom/Taylor Woodrow as construction partners.

The Great Grid Upgrade is planned as the largest overhaul of Britain’s electricity grid in decades.

The partnership forms part of a £9 billion supply chain framework to support infrastructure projects beyond 2030.

Investment in the electricity networks is expected to contribute an average of £18.4 billion to GDP and to support around 220,000 jobs each year between 2024 and 2035.

The nine accelerated transmission projects are Norwich to Tilbury North, Norwich to Tilbury South, North Humber to High Marnham, Grimsby to Walpole, Chesterfield to Willington, Brinsworth to High Marnham, Tilbury to Grain and Tilbury to Kingsnorth, Pentir to Trawsfynydd (cable replacement) and Pentir to Trawsfynydd (second circuit).