Lower Frankton Substation
National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) owns and maintains the electricity transmission network in England and Wales. We transport electricity from where it is generated, such as solar and offshore wind farms, to regional substations, where it then continues on its journey to homes and businesses.
To ensure that renewable energy is transported as efficiently as possible, we are working to upgrade the network along the Wales/England border to meet increased demand for connections.
About the proposed Lower Frankton Substation
National Grid has several requests from customers requiring a connection to the grid on the Wales/England border. It is due to this increase in demand that a new substation is required to accommodate these requests for connections to the grid, and any related infrastructure, which cannot be accommodated by existing substations in the area.
This work is therefore essential to connect new sources of renewable energy, manage power flows on the network, and support future demand.
Our existing substations do not have the capacity for additional connections and therefore a new substation is proposed on the existing, high-voltage 400kV overhead line route running between Wrexham Substation (aka Legacy) and Shrewsbury Substation.
What we are proposing
Our proposed development would include the construction of a new substation in the Lower Frankton area.
As a new development, we will require planning permission to undertake any work once a suitable site has been selected. This new infrastructure will facilitate the increase in connections to our network, including renewable energy sources, and will support future demand.
Biodiversity Net Gain
We will carry out assessments for the proposed Lower Frankton Substation and evaluate any potential impacts on the local environment as and when we have selected a preferred site. These assessments will help us to understand what mitigations we need to put in place to help reduce our impact on the local environment.
We are committed to ensuring a 10% biodiversity net gain, which means that the local environment will be left in an improved biodiverse compared to at the start of the project. This will be achieved by a range of measures, such as habitat creation and enhancement for protected species.
Contact us
Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments about the proposed development by emailing [email protected] or calling 0800 358 4815. Our phone lines are open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Any calls received outside of these times will be picked up via answerphone and will be responded to the next working day.
Frequently asked questions
National Grid sits at the heart of Britain’s energy system, connecting millions of people and businesses to the energy they use every day. It's our vision to be at the heart of a clean, fair and affordable energy future.
National Grid is a group of companies and one of those companies, National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET), owns, builds and maintains the high voltage network in England and Wales. It's NGET who is developing plans for the Lower Frankton substation.
Within the National Grid Group there are other distinctly separate legal entities, each with their individual responsibilities and roles. More information about National Grid can be found on the ‘about us’ section of National Grid’s website: https://www.nationalgrid.com/about-us.
NGET owns, builds and maintains the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales. This network operates primarily at 400,000 volts (400kV) and 275,000 volts (275kV).
Regulated independently by Ofgem, NESO is the National Energy System Operator for Great Britain, which makes sure we all have the essential energy we need by ensuring supply meets demand every second of every day.
Generators of electricity apply to NESO when they wish to connect to the high-voltage electricity network and the NESO leads the work to consider how the network may need to evolve to deliver a cleaner, greener future.
Substations are integral features of the transmission and distribution networks and enable electricity to be transmitted at different voltages, securely and reliably. One of the main roles of substations is to convert electricity into different voltages. This is needed so the electricity can be transmitted throughout the country and then distributed throughout local neighbourhoods and into our homes, businesses and buildings.
NGET takes electricity generated from windfarms and other power sources and transports it through its network of pylons, overhead lines, cables, and substations. It’s then transmitted at a lower voltage through the local distribution networks to homes and businesses. The proposed Lower Frankton substation lies within this network.
Responsibility for connecting to any NGET substation sits with the developer, and they are required to secure their own planning consents to facilitate the connection. National Grid is responsible for identifying the most suitable connection point following a request to connect with our network, and the voltage of this connection point.
National Grid will look to, where possible, minimise the construction of any additional overhead lines.
We have not finalised our plans for this substation. We will be able to share more information when we hold our public consultation later this year.