The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is committing £600m to Iberdrola to upgrade the British power grid through its subsidiary, Scottish Power.

The investment forms part of a £1.35bn financing package, led by Bank of America as Sole Debt Arranger and including Bank of America, BankInter, BNP Paribas, Caixabank, Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Banco Sabadell as lenders.

NWF’s financing will ensure the deployment of capital needed to deliver seven of ScottishPower’s priority transmission grid upgrade projects, part of the UK electricity grid upgrade.

Acting as the bridge between Scotland and England, ScottishPower’s development of the Eastern Green Link (EGL) projects 1 and 4, which NWF’s investment is supporting, will help to increase the capacity to transport energy from where it is generated to where it is needed, via interconnectors from Scotland to the North-East of England and Norfolk.

The financing will also deliver grid upgrades in five key locations across Scotland including the building of new substations, overhead line reconfiguration and the improvement of overhead transmission cables to increase both capacity and resilience.

NESO has identified EGL1 as a crucial project for the delivery of the government’s Clean Power 2030 ambitions. In its advice to the Government on the pathway towards the 2030 ambition, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) estimates that up to £60bn of investment is required to support the delivery of an upgraded power system.

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