North East at the heart of £1.35bn grid upgrade

> ScottishPower has locked in £1.35bn for grid upgrades to carry Scottish wind-powered electricity into England

- GRAEME WHITFIELD

A PROJECT that puts the North East at the heart of the UK’s renewable energy infrastructure has been backed by £1.35bn from the Government and major banks.

The UK’s National Wealth Fund has joined Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Lloyds and NatWest in lending energy firm ScottishPower the money to upgrade the power grid between Scotland and the Hawthorn Pit substation in County Durham.

The financing package for the Eastern Green Link (EGL) project will help pay for work on several major offshore cabling projects carrying electricity from wind farms in Scotland into England via the North Sea.

The project which will be followed by a similar link from Scotland to Lincolnshire will help transmit renewable energy from Scottish wind farms to areas of higher demand in England.