Transmission Development Plan for Northern Ireland

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October 2023

The Transmission Development Plan for Northern Ireland 2023 - 2032 is an ambitious project that involves a £630 million capital investment over 10 years. It proposes several essential upgrades to the electricity network including:

  • Modernising parts of the grid in Greater Belfast, so its people and businesses have the power they need to grow
  • Upgrading the transmission system in County Antrim, to increase the amount of clean energy we can transport
  • Strengthening the grid in the North West and Mid Tyrone areas to support eonomic development and to facilitate decarbonisation of Northern Ireland's electrciity supply
  • Bolstering interconnection with GB and ROI by increasing capacity of the Moyle Interconnector and constructing a new North South Interconnector

The proposals detailed within the Transmission Development Plan outline essential upgrades to the electricity grid in Northern Ireland which will help to improve reliability and strengthen the electricity network. It will also help to bring the cost for consumers down over time as it will enable us to bring more cleaner, renewable sources of electricity onto the system and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. This will help to deliver our climate targets of 80% renewable generation of electricity by 2030, and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

October 2022
The Utility Regulator has published its decision paper approving the Transmission Development Plan 2021-2030 (TDPNI)

The TDPNI is SONI’s annual report setting out the planned development to be carried out by SONI and NIE Networks on the Northern Ireland electricity transmission system over the next ten years. This is work that is required to maintain the system and to enable the energy transition and further decarbonisation of our energy usage.

We consulted on the draft TDPNI earlier this year, and published our response to
the consultation before submitting the document to the Regulator, who consulted on it again. Our response to their consultation can be found here. Thank you to all who provided feedback.

The final document is available here.