The National Grid has confirmed that it is in the process of building its largest new electrical substation in response to the growing demand for datacentres in West London.

The facility will be sited just outside of Greater London in Buckinghamshire and will, according to the National Grid, enable a dozen new datacentres to be connected to its electricity transmission network.

“The new site forms part of National Grid’s upgrade to its transmission network to meet growing demand for electricity, ensuring it can continue to support the growth of new sectors, such as datacentres, and the economic and employment benefits they can bring,” the National Grid said in a statement. 

Dubbed Uxbridge Moor, the substation is being built next door to another 400kV substation in Iver, Buckinghamshire, that is at full capacity and cannot be expanded further. It will be comprised of two substations, including one 400kV facility and another with 132kV of capacity.

“The requests from datacentres to connect at Uxbridge Moor will require around 1.8GW of new capacity, equivalent to adding a mid-sized city to the grid on the outskirts of London,” said the National Grid. “When built, it will be the largest new substation on National Grid’s network by gigawatt capacity.”

The work is part of a planned five-year investment push, valued at £35bn, by the National Grid that is geared towards increasing the UK’s electricity generation capacity and making it easier for datacentres and gigafactories to connect to the grid.

The part of the country where the substation will be built has seen a influx of datacentres over the course of the past decade, prompting concerns about whether there is sufficient supply and grid capacity to service them all.

This matter came to a head in 2022 when a briefing note from the Greater London Authority’s Development Service began to circulate that claimed an influx of datacentres meant the electricity and transmission networks in West London were struggling to cope with the demand being placed on them.

Energy minister Michael Shanks said that projects such as this are essential to the government’s ability to deliver on initiatives, such as its push to lower the barriers to datacentre developments in the UK.

“Upgrades to the electricity network like this are at the heart of building the industries of our future and support our Plan for Change to deliver economic growth and skilled jobs across the UK,” said Shanks.

“It comes as we progress our reforms to the grid connections queue that will speed up the time it takes to get high-growth firms, like datacentres and AI hubs, plugged into the grid – while also fast-tracking projects that will scale up clean, homegrown power by 2030.”

Laura Mulcahy, project director at National Grid Electricity Transmission, said the substation’s creation will generate a wide range of economic benefits. 

“Our new Uxbridge Moor substation will provide vital access to power for datacentres that are at the heart of Britain’s innovation and economic growth,” she said. “It will enable new jobs and investment in Buckinghamshire, and will support the UK’s digital future.”

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