Money no object for Net Zero fantasists
Director's column
20 Mar
Andrew Montford
The small problem with National Grid’s Net Zero investment plan is that they can’t afford it.
National Grid has just announced a new expenditure programme, worth £60 billion, covering new transmission infrastructure, both onshore and offshore. The spend is to be completed by 2035, and we are told that it will add around £20 to a household bill. This is strictly true, but ignores the rather important detail that it will add a similar amount to the general cost of living too, so they should have said the cost to a homeowner is around £40 per year.
Worse, the new programme comes on top of another £54 billion announced in 2022, so consumers are actually going to be coughing up something more like £80 extra per year. And that’s only if National Grid delivers the projects to budget. The history here is not encouraging, so we might realistically expect to have to pay something more like an extra £150 per year.
And bear in mind that this is only for expansion of the 20,000 kilometers of the transmission grid. The distribution grid, which currently has 800,000 kilometers of cables, most of which will need to be replaced, is extra.*
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/more-fantasy-energy-policy
