Hurst site hosts Jules Pipe, Deputy Mayor of London for Planning, Regeneration and Skills
The London Power Tunnels (LPT) team were delighted to recently welcome Jules Pipe to the Hurst site to visit the tunnels for the first time since completion.
As Deputy Mayor of London for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, one of Pipe’s key priorities is ensuring London’s infrastructure supports growth and makes London a cleaner, greener and smarter city. Reflecting this, we were pleased to welcome him back to site to visit the tunnels and see how the project has progressed whilst remaining on time and on budget. Joined by his wider team on the day, Pipe was keen to learn more about how integral the seven-year, £1 billion project is to meeting London’s energy needs and supporting Britain’s transition to net zero.
Pipe has been engaged with the LPT project for a number of years, previously visiting to support our schools engagement programme, which is undertaken in partnership with early talent specialists, Connectr. During his recent visit we discussed the project's progress, including the recent landmark breakthrough out our Eltham site in Greenwich, which marked the completion of 32.5km of tunnelling, achieving a major milestone.
200km worth of high voltage cable – enough to stretch from London to Cardiff – has now been installed, with the project due to be fully operational by 2026. In total the project will have moved 900,000 tonnes of earth – equivalent in volume to half of Wembley Stadium – with 99.98% of waste material diverted from landfill.
Social Impact and Community Engagement
The LPT team also updated Pipe on the ongoing success of our social impact programme, which is run in partnership with Connectr. As announced in our Social Impact Report, which was published last week, the programme has now reached 85,000 students, and is on track to reach the target of 100,000 by its completion in 2025.
£1.8m in total will be invested into the scheme and is estimated to contribute to a £4.1m economic output by helping to reduce the likelihood of participants falling out of education, employment, or training between the ages of 16-18.
Onur Aydemir, Project Director for London Power Tunnels, said “We were delighted to recently welcome Jules Pipe to London Power Tunnels’ Hurst site. As someone who has been engaged with the project for a number of years, it was great to show him how far the LPT has come, especially following our recent landmark breakthrough at our Eltham site.
We hope to welcome Mr Pipe back soon, when the project is fully operational and supplying South London with the energy that it needs.”
Onur Aydemir provides Jules Pipe with an update on the project from within the tunnels.
