Wires installed on UK’s T-Pylons ready to carry low-carbon energy

Wires have been successfully installed on 36 new T-Pylons to carry low carbon energy to 6 million homes and businesses in the UK. Their installation is part of the Hinkley Connection Project being carried out by the National Grid and Balfour Beatty.

The installed wires carrying low carbon energy onto the UK electricity network signals a new milestone in the project, which is being executed by Uk energy company National Grid and Balfour Betty, a British multinational infrastructure group.

The wires have now been installed in a process known as ‘stringing’.

48 of the T-pylons have now been constructed between Bridgwater and Loxton in Somerset and engineers have been putting in place the conductors that will carry the low carbon energy onto the electricity network.

James Goode, Project Director for National Grid Electricity Transmission stated, “We’re immensely proud to have reached this significant milestone on the Hinkley Connection Project (…) the conductors we are installing today will carry low carbon electricity onto the network for millions of people across the UK to use for years to come.”

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The conductors are transported to site on large, 2.5m high drums, weighing up to 7.5 tonnes.

Teams of engineers first pull a steel braided rope between sections of up to 12 T-pylons through circular running blocks suspended from the diamond-shaped insulators. The heavier conductors are then attached to the rope via a rectangular headboard, which is then pulled back through the running blocks using large winches.

Engineers control the speed of the winches to guide the conductors into position before they are fixed to the insulators.

The span of cables between each T-pylon is up to 360m. The conductors are installed in sections of up to 12 T-pylons at a time, with each section taking around two weeks to ‘string’.

Stringing is now complete on 36 T-pylons between Woolavington and Loxton and work is due to start in April to install the conductors on 12 T-pylons between Bridgwater and Woolavington. These 48 T-pylons will be energised in October 2022.

There will be a total of 116 T-pylons along the route. Construction work has begun on the remaining 68 on the northern section of the route between Sandford and Portbury. Those will be completed, including stringing, by 2023.

The Hinkley Connection stretches 57km from Hinkley Point C to Seabank power station. It is made up of sections of traditional lattice pylons at Shurton and Avonmouth and 116 new T-pylons, with a section of underground cable between Loxton and Sandford, running under the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Liam Cave, Operations Director at Balfour Beatty, also said, “We are delighted to have reached this critical milestone – a landmark moment taking us one step closer to safely and successfully delivering low-carbon electricity to millions of homes and business in the UK.”

The Hinkley Connection Project will be ready to connect six million homes and businesses in the South West and beyond with low-carbon electricity. This will be generated by Hinkley Point C and other sources of low carbon energy in 2024. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, including reinstatement of the land.