National Grid’s Hinkley Connection Project Completes Installation Of All 116 T-Pylons
Balfour Beatty has completed the installation of all 116, 35 meter high, T-pylons for National Grid’s 57 km Hinkley Connection Project to power six million homes and business across the UK with low carbon, homegrown energy.
The first T-pylon was constructed in September 2021 near East Huntspill, while 47 more T-pylons were completed with installation of the conductors by the end of 2022.
In early 2023, 36 new T-pylons were energized between Woolavington and Loxton and power was generated through cables under the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Sandford substation. Additionally, 68 T-pylons were built for operations between north of Sandford substation to Portbury.
The last of the T-structures’ 232 diamond-shaped insulators were placed on a T-pylon between Yatton and Kenn in North Somerset by the contractor.
Before energizing all the T-pylons by the end of 2024, conductors will be hung from the T-pylons, while the last of 249 traditional lattice pylons and 67 km of overhead wires will be removed from the landscape to allow the new electricity connection. The project is expected to be completed by 2025.
"National Grid’s T-pylons are the first new design for overhead electricity lines in over a century and will play a central role in connecting low-carbon energy to millions of people when Hinkley Point C begins generation,” said Roxane Fisher-Redel, Senior Project Manager for National Grid on the Hinkley Connection Project.
