Network investment

Our network investment programme

We're delivering the largest ever investment in the North West’s power network, investing over £1bn between 2023 and 2028.

Why we're here

Our capital programme delivers the network investment needed to strengthen the electricity network, improve reliability, support low carbon technologies, and create a cleaner, greener, more resilient energy future to meet the needs of our communities.

Capital delivery programme

A dedicated single function to deliver our network investment

£1bn

Half a million pounds per day on major projects - the largest ever investment in the network

Investment across our region

Over £40m in Cumbria, over £33m in Lancashire, and over £32m in Greater Manchester

Future-proofing

We're building a better future, quicker for everyone

Network investment frequently asked questions

Explore our FAQs

Investment in Greater Manchester

A £32m plus programme, the investment includes seven sites covering Salford, Cheetham Hill, West Didsbury, and the city centre to build more capacity in the next five years. This will create new capacity equivalent to 150,000 homes and businesses, enabling more renewable energy generation and the take up of electric vehicles and heating.

Manchester development plan

Releasing network capacity to facilitate our stakeholders’ major planned developments and decarbonisation plans

Find out more about this investment

Oldham investment

A record investment, with £13m being spent upgrading the power network

Find out more about this capital project

Frederick Road transformers

A £12m replacement of three large Grid transformers at our Salford depot

Find out more about this capital project

Salford investment

An £11.6m investment to the 132,000-volt electricity infrastructure throughout Salford

Find out more about this capital project

Investment in Cumbria

A £40m plus programme is our largest ever in Cumbria! It will see us replace 154km of 132,000-volt overhead line, creating 230 meggawatts of additional capacity on the network, enabling more renewable energy generation and increase take up of electric vehicles and heating.

The Cumbria Ring

Releasing network capacity to facilitate our stakeholders’ major planned developments and decarbonisation plans

Find out more about this investment

Harker substation

A £60m new 132,000-volt substation to feed the Cumbria Ring

Find out more about this capital project

Barrow investment

A £4.5m investment to replace ageing high-voltage cable circuits

Find out more about this capital project

Tebay investment

A £14m investment to install 11km of 33,000-volt underground electricity cables and a new substation

Find out more about this capital project

Investment in Lancashire

A £33m plus programme will see us replace essential equipment and increase capacity at 11 substations across Blackpool, Preston, Lower Darwen, Rossendale, Lancaster, Tarleton, Nelson, Burscough Bridge and Clitheroe, creating more capacity and ensuring the network is ready for greener technologies like electric cars and heat pumps.

Nelson Investment

£4m investment to install 6km of underground electricity cables and assets

Find out more about this capital project

Rochdale investment

£1.9 Million investment to improve Rochdale’s electricity Infrastructure

Find out more about this capital project

Innovation embedded in our network investment programme

Leading the way in developing ground-breaking, flexible solutions driven by the changing needs of our customers in a low carbon future, delivered by our network investment programme. 

LineSIGHT

Identifies developing issues before they happen and help fix power cuts quicker if they occur

More on LineSIGHT

CLASS

Award-winning, cutting edge voltage control to reduce demand for electricity, without customers noticing a difference to their supply

More on CLASS

Smart Street

Innovative voltage control to enable your appliances to perform more efficiently and make it easier to adopt low carbon technologies

More on Smart Street

Net Zero Terrace

Decarbonising an entire terraced street using a Smart Local Energy System integrated with the network, optimised and affordable to customers

More on Net Zero Terrace

Unlooping

Separating shared electricity supply connections between properties, providing each household with its own dedicated supply. A £4 million invstment to proactively unloop approximately 1,500 properties. 

Unlooping

Increased demand on the network for greener technologies means households need a dedicated electricity supply

Find out about our unlooping trials

Delivering investment in our region through capital projects

By 2040, 1.4 million electric vehicles will be on the roads and over one million heat pumps... the demand for power will have increased by a third.

We're investing billions in the operation, maintenance and upgrading of the region’s electricity network to support this transition.

It also means investing in the resilience of the network to reduce customers’ time without power by 20% by developing and delivering our cutting-edge engineering innovations to keep the network reliable, efficient and safe.

We aim to minimise disruptions to your daily life by carefully planning our work. We will always notify you in advance before any planned works commence.

Our network investment programme will...