Ardent lands three projects with National Grid on the Great Grid Upgrade

Ardent, which has offices in London, Birmingham, Warrington, Leeds, Glasgow and Dublin, was appointed to National Grid’s UK Land and Property (UKLP) framework for Land Rights and Land Referencing last autumn to support the transition towards net zero.

Now, the company has been selected for three schemes that will add significant capacity to the network as part of the Great Grid Upgrade, which has been designed to connect ‘home-made’ clean energy to the grid.

Ardent, which has specialisms in utilities and renewables, will support National Grid to deliver over 100km of new cabling for Eastern Green Link 3 and Eastern Green Link 4 which will transport clean energy generated in Scotland into Lincolnshire and North Norfolk to power up to four million homes.

As energy generation in Scotland grows, additional capacity will be required to securely and reliably transport the increasing amount of energy generated in Scotland and Scottish waters, particularly from offshore wind, meaning new links are required for the Midlands and the south of England.

It will also be operating on a project that is proposing a new 60km 400kV overhead line from Chesterfield to Willington that will support the UK’s net zero target by reinforcing the electricity transmission network and adding capacity to accommodate increasing power flows of energy generated mostly from offshore wind, in Scotland and North East England.

The project supports the UK’s Net Zero target by adding capacity to accommodate increasing power flows from offshore wind and interconnectors in Scotland and North East England, which is expected to double within the next 10 years.

By reinforcing the network in the centre of the country, the project will facilitate the connection of more renewable and low carbon electricity, to allow clean green energy to be carried around the network and help build a more secure and resilient future energy system.

The final project is an uprating of existing infrastructure with new substations, again in the Midlands and South Yorkshire.

Around 30 members of Ardent’s team will be working on the schemes and will be largely deployed from the company’s Birmingham, London and Leeds offices.

Its services will include land referencing, land assembly, compensation and GIS & digital data capturing. The projects are expected to delivered over a three-to-six-year period.

Nick Dexter, Head of Utilities at Ardent, said: “We were, of course, delighted to be appointed to the framework last year as it was a real testament to the growth and stature of the business over recent years.

“And now we have the opportunity to deliver on three significant schemes with National Grid that will add further capacity to the network as part of the Great Grid Upgrade, which is absolutely crucial in creating more electricity capacity for the country.

“The projects will be delivered, largely, by our teams in Birmingham, Leeds and London but we will utilise resources from across all of our offices which, again, underlines how the strength and stature of the business means we can undertake such significant work that will have a lasting, positive effect on the nation’s transition to net zero.”