The vast increase in investment in the power grid has been set out by National Grid’s energy system operator (ESO) in its Holistic Network Design report.

The report compiled with help from Atkins and WSP sets out the scale of the challenge the industry faces over the next eight years to meet the planned ramping up of offshore wind farm capacity in the UK.

Supporting planned offshore wind farms will require 94 onshore projects alone to upgrade and build new grid lines costing together £22bn.

The total cost of onshore infrastructure recommended between now and 2030 is £21.7 billion across 94 projects.

Offshore network infrastructure required to connect the extra 23GW needed to meet the Government’s target will cost an additional £32bn.

The report warned that the time taken to build onshore transmission network infrastructure would need to be significantly reduced in order to meet the offshore wind ambitions and net zero targets.

This particularly applies to 11 of the onshore transmission network reinforcements recommended in the assessment.

“It is vitally important the supply chain for onshore and offshore transmission network is also in place.

“The offshore network design recommended in this document is ambitious but realistic, being based on known and well understood technology, ” says the report.