UK Transmission Equipment Return Delayed, Emergency Request for 1,200 MW Cross-Border Power Supply

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 12, the UK's National Energy System Operator (NESO) activated a cross-border emergency power support procedure and requested up to 1,200 MW of additional power imports from France after a transmission asset owned by National Grid Electricity Transmission failed to return to operation as scheduled. The delay in returning the equipment to service reduced the available transmission capacity of the UK grid, and NESO implemented emergency dispatch through cross-border interconnector lines to maintain the safe operation of the power system.

NESO learned on the afternoon of the same day that the return to operation of the relevant transmission asset would be postponed, and subsequently assessed the impact of the equipment delay on grid transmission capacity. At 16:52 UK local time, NESO issued its first round of emergency support requests under established operating procedures, covering 700 MW of power, and then submitted an additional support request for 500 MW. The two rounds of requests totaled 1,200 MW, and the related power support arrangements involved the subsea interconnector between the UK and France.

The incident involved transmission infrastructure managed by National Grid Electricity Transmission. The company is responsible for asset management and maintenance of the high-voltage transmission network in England and Wales, while NESO is responsible for the operation and dispatch of the UK power system. During this dispatch period, NESO continued to maintain the security of grid power supply through existing emergency operating procedures, and no reports of large-scale customer outages caused by the incident were reported.

In September 2026, the UK National Audit Office published the results of a review of transmission network construction, pointing out that the UK needs to complete 88 transmission network upgrade projects before 2030, of which 64 are still in an earlier stage of development. In the 2025-2026 fiscal year, UK power system balancing expenditure reached GBP 1.9 billion.