Electricity 'superhighway' to be built between Scotland and England

Key Points

Energy regulator Ofgem has approved an ‘electricity superhighway’ between Scotland and England
The 500km subsea connection will run between Peterhead in the north-east of Scotland to Drax on the east coast of England
It will be the longest HVDC subsea cable in the UK and is the single largest electricity transmission project ever

A £3.4bn electricity “superhighway” between Scotland and England has been approved in the biggest single investment for transmission infrastructure in Britain.

The high voltage power cable will connect Peterhead in Aberdeenshire to Drax in North Yorkshire when it is completed in 2029.

The 500-kilometre Eastern Green Link 2 project will transport vast amounts of renewable energy between Scotland and England after being approved by energy regulator Ofgem.

Delivered as a joint venture by National Grid and SSEN Transmission, Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2) will include the longest HVDC subsea cable in the UK and is the UK’s single largest electricity transmission project ever, providing enough electricity to power two million homes.

Despite being able to carry electricity in both directions, the majority from the link is expected to flow out of Scotland.

Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2) Project - Peterhead. — Eastern Green Link 2 (EGL2) Project – Peterhead. Stuart Nicol/SSEN

The joint venture between Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and National Grid is part of a push to modernise the electricity grid to deal with greater demands placed on it by the clean power transition.

Jonathan Brearley, Ofgem chief executive, said: “Ofgem is fully committed to supporting the Government to meet its aims of getting clean power by 2030.

“Today’s announcement is a further step in putting the regulatory systems and processes in place to speed up network regulation to achieve its aim.”

Most of the 500km (311-mile) cable will be laid under the North Sea, while the rest will be underground onshore.

Construction is planned to start later this year, with the new connection due to be operational by 2029.

The regulator also provisionally gave the green light to a £295m funding package for a set of upgrades to the electricity grid in Yorkshire.

The project, which is run by National Grid, will involve building new substations and overhead lines to improve networks in the North East of England.

The announcement comes after Labour said it would ease planning regulations, as part of a bid to get more homes and power infrastructure-related schemes built in the coming years.