Electricity Grid Connections
Tuesday, 13 October 2026
Contributions
Darren Paffey (Southampton Itchen) (Lab)Labour
13. What recent progress she has made on reforming electricity grid connections.
The Minister for Energy (Michael Shanks)Labour
Our electricity grid is one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the country, but it was allowed to get into a complete mess through under-investment and a failure to tackle the grid connection queue, which got to over 700 GW under the previous Government. We have grappled with that legacy head-on, reducing the queue by 300 GW and ensuring that accurate connection offers are issued. We have made progress on that, but there is much more to do to make sure that the grid works for the people of this country. That is why we are injecting public control back into the system by launching Great British Grid.
Southampton’s port electrification and decarbonisation projects are ready to go, but we still cannot get the national grid upgrades that we need for at least another decade. The Prime Minister himself has said that this drives costs up, drags growth down and holds Britain back, so I really welcome the announcements about Great British Grid. Will the Minister say when GB Grid will be able to start filling those gaps that exist at the moment, and will he meet me and Southampton’s businesses so that we can find a way forward and get good green growth in Southampton’s postcodes?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight the point that the Prime Minister made about how critical it is to fix the fundamental problems with connecting to the grid. That is why we have announced that we have set up Great British Grid as part of Great British Energy. We have made substantial progress on reforming the queue, but we do have to build the grid after decades of under-investment. I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this issue, and I am fairly confident that we can make sure that National Grid is part of that conversation as well.
Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)Liberal Democrat
Bute Energy is planning to build a big wind farm in mid-Wales, and it is going to connect that wind farm over 47 km of pylons into a substation in North Shropshire that does not yet exist. I found out on the National Energy System Operator’s website that that substation is likely to be a 24 bay, 400 kV substation in a place with no substantial roads and a good amount of useful farmland. Will the Minister meet me to discuss the appropriateness of the site? I think it could go elsewhere, which would require a shorter run of pylons for Bute Energy. There are more appropriate places to build it than Lower Frankton.
I am very happy to meet the hon. Lady to discuss this issue, as I am always happy to meet Members from across the House. It is not for me as a Minister to decide the exact locations of substations, but I am happy to engage with her and to raise the issue with the relevant transmission owner.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5415306.