Strengthening the UK’s Electricity Network

Skanska partnered with Areva and Mott MacDonald to help National Grid upgrade the UK’s electricity transmission network—ensuring reliable power for millions of people, every day.

The challenge

National Grid needed to modernise its network while delivering better value for society. Reliability was essential, from households to heavy industry. At the same time, the programme had to achieve genuine cost efficiencies without compromising on quality, safety or resilience.

Every decision we made together balanced these priorities.

Working in joint venture with Areva and Mott MacDonald, Skanska supported delivery across the southeast of England. What began as a five-year contract was extended to ten, reflecting the strength of the partnership and the results achieved.

End-to-end delivery

Together with National Grid, we delivered the full lifecycle of each project, from design and planning through to construction and commissioning.

Our work focused on 400kV and 132kV substations, ensuring the network performed reliably in real-world conditions. This meant maintaining uninterrupted power supply to homes, businesses and communities.

Performance through partnership

Since 2007, the joint venture (SEESA) has supported National Grid in achieving the reliability customers expect. More than £500 million of assets were built and commissioned, including 120 circuits, all delivered with no loss of supply.

This strengthened resilience across the network and improved service for users nationwide.

The complex civil engineering and construction works programme was delivered by a team of 350 to 400 people, working across sites and offices. In 2012 alone, over 1.17 million hours were worked safely and collaboratively.

The scale of delivery was significant:

Over £750 million of work completed
96 schemes (£1.397 billion) developed to IP2 stage
42 schemes (£804+ million) progressed to IP3 stage

Flexibility was key. The team adapted to changing requirements while maintaining performance and achieving cost efficiencies.

SEESA – Southeast England substations alliance

Project information

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