National Grid agrees to pay out over Cumbria failings

Ofgem said National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) admitted breaching the terms of its licence at the Harker substation, near Carlisle, between November 2016 and November 2021.

These included failing to properly monitor, maintain and repair civil assets or to plan and resource remediation works at Harker.

Harker serves customers in the North West, while it is also a key part of the overall network capability across the Anglo-Scottish border.

There are also renewable energy generators looking to connect to the distribution network in that area.

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FTSE 100 listed National Grid – which runs much of Britain’s electricity grid – will make the payment into Ofgem’s energy industry voluntary redress scheme, which supports vulnerable customers.

Cathryn Scott, Ofgem’s regulatory director of market oversight and enforcement, said: “Delays and asset failures risk reliability issues, which ultimately impact consumers.

“This has been a complex and detailed investigation and it was concerning that NGET failed to adequately monitor, maintain and repair some civil assets at Harker 132kV substation during the period being investigated.

“It is right that NGET has accepted its failings at this substation.”

NGET has since carried out repairs at Harker in 2022.

Ofgem said the Harker substation is being rebuilt and extended as part of the Harker Energy Enablement project, which it said would increase capacity between Scotland and England and “prepare the network for future demand, including renewable and storage connections”.

A National Grid spokesperson said: “Repairs at the substation and changes to how we manage these assets were complete by 2022.

“A major programme of investment at Harker began in 2024 to rebuild and upgrade the entire site, including replacing the existing substations with two new substations adjacent to the current site.”