Daily Debrief · Weekend edition

Thousands of miles of new power lines are needed to deliver climate targets and energy security, but bills will rise in the short term and opponents are mobilising Britain is embarking on one of the largest overhauls of its electricity grid in generations – a megaproject in which five times more infrastructure will be built by 2030 than was constructed during the previous three decades. Tens of billions of pounds are being spent on new pylons, subsea cables and converter stations to connect a growing fleet of wind and solar farms and carry clean power to where it is needed. Continue reading...

National Audit Office says failure to implement £70bn modernisation would also hold back economic growth The ‘great grid upgrade’ is off track – ministers should spell out the risks for bills Consumers will pay higher energy bills unless the UK government speeds up work on a vast programme of upgrades to the electricity grid to enable the switch to renewables, the public spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO) said that without faster action the extra costs associated with managing the ageing power network, which are ultimately passed on to the public, could reach £7.8bn a year by 2030. Continue reading...

National Audit Office calls for greater transparency on £70bn programme that is running over budget and behind schedule Speed up electricity grid upgrade or else face higher bills, warns UK watchdog It’s an open secret in the energy industry that “the great grid upgrade” – the £70bn programme to rewire the nation’s electricity transmission network to enable clean power by 2030 – is running over budget and behind schedule, and may end up costing consumers and businesses more in their bills than advertised. How far behind? How much more? It is impossible to get straight answers from the bodies overseeing the massive spending programme, which may continue at an even greater scale into the 2030s. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnz), its in-house body, the National Energy System Operator (Neso), and Ofgem, the supposedly independent regulator, publish acres of information on narrow matters, but none provides a clear big-picture assessment: how is the grid upgrade really going? Continue reading...

Greek renewables developer Metlen Energy & Metals has signed an agreement with utility Copec for the sale of the Tamarico II solar-plus-storage project in Chile’s Atacama region.

Utility and power firms Axpo and energieUri have commissioned two large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Gurtnellen, Canton Uri.

Premier Energies and RCT India have established a joint venture to develop a 12GWh BESS manufacturing facility in Telangana, India.