ScottishPower’s transmission business, SP Energy Networks, has officially started up its five year £12bn rewiring programme of the central and southern Scotland electricity grid. The investment programme will see 12 new major substations built and over 570km of lines upgraded or replaced. This network overhaul will help increase grid capacity, and ‘help homes and businesses across the country move towards an all-electric future’.
Nicola Connelly, CEO of SP Energy Networks, said: “The next five years are pivotal to achieving Britain’s clean power ambitions. Between now and 2031 we are undertaking the biggest overhaul of the electricity grid since its inception, with tens of thousands of people helping transform and modernise aging infrastructure.”
UK and Irish supply chain companies are benefiting from the rewiring programme. A sizeable beneficiary, Kirby Group Engineering, which is headquartered in Limerick, has worked with SP Energy Networks for the last 13 years. It has now secured a place on its strategic framework which will see it and 18 other suppliers benefit from up to £5.4bn in contracts over the next 10 years. It has opened two offices in Scotland and has even moved to a bigger Glasgow office to house its expanding workforce on account of securing its order book, and enlarged its apprenticeship programme.
