Harker the Herald: Cumbria’s Front Line in the Great Grid Upgrade and How this Can Help Project Collette
The Great Grid Upgrade, launched in 2023, while controversial, represents the most ambitious overhaul of Britain’s electricity network since the 1950s, when Churchill’s government built the first 400 kV “Supergrid” to connect coal and nuclear plants across the countryside.
Image source: Utility Week
Seventy years or so on, it’s happening again, only this time on a far greater scale. This isn’t just an upgrade. It’s the enhanced electrification of a nation, re-engineered for net zero and the digital age.
Excitingly, by 2030, the upgraded grid will carry 50 GW of offshore wind, enough to power every home in Great Britain and the equivalent of taking 5.2 million petrol cars off the road every year.
Community Benefit Fund on Steroids
Unlike previous infrastructure projects, this upgrade establishes a fundamentally different relationship between the grid and the communities that host it. National Grid’s £1 billion+ Community Benefit Fund will deliver millions in annual payments and grants to towns along transmission routes, transforming local opposition into genuine partnership. That said, questions remain about how this fund will be delivered in practice, and communities will be watching closely to ensure commitments translate into tangible benefits.
The economic case is equally compelling. The upgrade will generate 130,000 new jobs and contribute £11-14.5 billion annually to the economy. Every project includes a legal requirement for at least 10% biodiversity improvement through habitat restoration, turning industrial infrastructure into environmental enhancement.
Navigating the Trade-Offs
Large-scale infrastructure always involves trade-offs, and the concerns raised about this project deserve serious consideration.
Opposition is entirely understandable. Households could see bills rise by around £108 a year by 2031, with £60 of that coming from electricity transmission upgrades alone, and many businesses facing 70-100 % hikes in transmission charges. Hundreds of new 50-metre pylons are understandably sparking fierce local resistance and people rightly worry about scarred landscapes, falling property values, and damage to tourism and cherished habitats. Campaigners are calling for undergrounding or offshore alternatives, conservationists fear fragmented ecology, and experienced analysts warn that the 2030 timetable looks ambitious given past delays and global supply-chain pressures.
These are not trivial concerns; they are real impacts on real communities.
Harker the Herald: Cumbria’s Front Line in the Great Grid Upgrade
Here in Cumbria, just north of Carlisle is Harker substation. For decades, it has been the main artery carrying electricity between Scotland and England. Today, it is maxed out – causing serious bottlenecks that are constraining the flow of clean Scottish wind power and costing the country hundreds of millions every year in wasted energy and constraint payments.
The good news is that the Harker Energy Enablement Project is already under construction, is reconductoring and upgrading all four existing double-circuit lines. The result: a multi-gigawatt surge in cross-border capacity using the current pylon corridor, which means no new steel giants lurching across the landscape.
Looking beyond 2030, NESO’s Centralised Strategic Network Plan, which includes a potential second new circuit, a new 400 kV switching station, which would elevate Harker from a constraining bottleneck into a high-capacity transmission superhighway – capable of unlocking an additional 5 to 8 GW of clean energy transfer.
Grid Upgrades Will Be a Game Changer For Project Collette
For Project Collette, these grid upgrades will be a game-changer. Without them, Collette’s 1.2 GW output would overwhelm the grid, and Collette would face millions in grid reinforcement costs. Instead, Collette can fit into these upgrade plans, with enabling works capped at around £9.35-21.82 million, primarily for bay extensions and minor cabling.
Our detailed grid feasibility study modelled connections to both Harker and Hutton substations. Both are technically feasible, but Harker stands out as the lower-risk choice, offering greater stability and simpler integration. All enabling works will be concentrated at Harker, where we need to install around 1,500 MVAr of reactive compensation, using proven shunt reactors and STATCOMs which will help smoothly manage cable capacity and keep power flowing reliably.
By integrating with the Great Grid Upgrade rather than building separate infrastructure, Project Collette will generate significant savings that will reduce its overall risk and these savings can be redirected to community investment.
Solving the Intermittency Challenge
Image source:freepik.com
One of the upgrade’s most significant (yet often overlooked) benefits is its impact on renewable energy reliability. Currently, Britain pays over £1 billion annually in curtailment fees to offshore wind farms that must shut down because the grid cannot accommodate their output. Simultaneously, supply shortfalls during low-wind periods require expensive gas-fired backup generation.
By 2032, when Harker reaches super-node status, the enhanced infrastructure will ensure that more renewable energy reaches consumers. For community-owned projects, like Project Collette, this means more hours of generation and greater financial returns that can flow directly back to local stakeholders.
Shaped by Local Voices
Opposition to new pylons and upfront costs is both inevitable and understandable. But the alternative, maintaining an inadequate grid while attempting to decarbonise our economy, is simply not viable.
Instead, the payoff is huge: much more offshore wind and reliable clean power that delivers real climate action. This isn’t pylons versus people, it’s both. It’s infrastructure that serves both national and local interests. It’s a complex journey, where listening to communities can bridge divides.
Project Collette’s Next Steps
Our next step is to reach out again to NESO to ensure Project Collette becomes an integrated, valued component of the national grid upgrade. Local voices will shape this process at every stage, ensuring that community priorities inform technical decisions.
by Ciara Shannon, Founding Director, Green Finance Community Hub CIC
For more on the Great Grid Upgrade, visit National Grid’s site.
See Collette’s Grid Report here.
A version of this blog is also on Green Alliance’s Inside Track here.
Click to see what locals have to say in BBC Politics North (North East and Cumbria) grid story (14/12/25).
