A major five-year £12bn plan to upgrade central and southern Scotland’s electricity grid has begun, supporting the UK’s move towards an “all-electric future”.
ScottishPower’s transmission business, SP Energy Networks, has officially started its rewiring programme in Scotland that will see 12 new major substations built and over 570km of transmission lines upgraded or replaced.
The Scottish grid is under pressure. The renewable energy generated by onshore and offshore wind turbines is putting strain on the current grid, causing bottlenecks and curtailment. The volume of power available from wind turbines is sometimes curtailed (reduced or switched off at source) due to limited grid capacity to transfer the power. As such, generators are instructed by the system operator to turn down or switch off their output. According to a report published in January 2026, over 12 Terawatt hours of renewable power was curtailed in 2025.
To help increase grid capacity, SP Energy Networks is embarking on...