© Supplied by National Grid National Grid is set to begin work on a major substation in Uxbridge Moor, which will connect over a dozen data centres to its network.
The Buckinghamshire site forms part of National Grid’s plans to invest £35 billion in its transmission network between 2026 and 2031.
The grid investment aims to connect emerging sources of significant demand, including data centres and gigafactories, alongside new renewable energy generation from wind and solar.
National Grid said connection requests from data centres to Uxbridge Moor alone will require around 1.8 GW of new capacity, the equivalent of adding a mid-sized city to the grid on the outskirts of London.
When complete, the Uxbridge Moor site will be the largest new substation on National Grid’s network by capacity.
Data centre grid demand
National Grid Electricity Transmission project director Laura Mulcahy said the Uxbridge Moor site will provide “vital access to power” for data centres in the region.
“It will enable new jobs and investment in Buckinghamshire, and will support the UK’s digital future,” Mulcahy said.
“Alongside these significant benefits, we are working to keep the substations’ environmental impact to a minimum.”
The Uxbridge Moor project includes two indoor gas-insulated (GIS) substations, which National Grid said will reduce the footprint of the site by 70%.
Uxbridge Moor will also be among the first GIS substations in the UK to operate without using sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
The synthetic, odourless gas is commonly used in the industry as an electrical insulator, but it acts as a potent greenhouse gas.
The UK agreed to phase out the use of SF6 in new medium-voltage equipment by 2026 in line with EU regulations, with a full ban on higher voltages expected by 2031.
UK energy minister Michael Shanks said upgrades to the electricity network are “at the heart of building the industries of our future”.
“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 data centres and AI hubs, plugged into the grid – while also fast-tracking projects that will scale up clean, homegrown power by 2030,” he said.
