National Grid to Power New UK Data Centre to Fuel Economy
National Grid has announced plans to work on a new substation to power data centres.
Located in Buckinghamshire, the new Uxbridge Moor substation will connect more than a dozen new data centres to its network. It forms part of National Grid’s upgrade to its transmission network to meet growing demand for electricity.
This is to ensure it can continue to support the growth of new sectors like data centres and the economic and employment benefits they can offer.
“Our new Uxbridge Moor substation will provide vital access to power for data centres that are at the heart of Britain’s innovation and economic growth,” says Laura Mulcahy, Project Director at National Grid Electricity Transmission.
“It will enable new jobs and investment in Buckinghamshire, and will support the UK's digital future.”
Building new capacity to meet data centre demand
The new site will feature two substations – one 400kV and one 132kV – both of which will be indoor gas-insulated facilities (GIS), reducing the footprint of the development by around 70% and minimising its impact on the environment.
National Grid says Uxbridge Moor will also be among the first GIS substations in the country to be free of sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), a commonly used electrical insulator that is also a potent greenhouse gas.
Using an alternative gas means the project will mark a critical key step towards National Grid’s goal of reducing SF6 emissions from its network by 50% by 2030.
Laura adds: “Alongside these significant benefits, we are working to keep the substations’ environmental impact to a minimum. By using the latest SF6-free gas-insulated switchgear, we’re reducing the size of this crucial site by around 70%, and ensuring its technology is sustainable and resilient long into the future.”
Principal contractor Murphy will build the Uxbridge Moor substation and deliver underground cabling and the associated work to connect the 400kV substation to the nearby overhead transmission line.
Liam Corr, Managing Director of Energy at Murphy, says: “Since 1951 Murphy has been a leading provider of innovative and integrated energy solutions – today we support groundbreaking transmission and distribution projects across the four countries in which we work.
“We are proud to be delivering this project in the UK’s capital and building on our strong working relationship with National Grid to help to ensure energy security for decades to come.”
Harnessing the grid sustainably
The news comes soon after the Heathrow Airport outage, which was caused by a substation fire in West London. This inevitably led to questions over the UKs national infrastructure and if its grid is resilient enough to handle more data centres – especially given the fact that the country is currently pushing for development.
Data centres remain critical to the digital economy and hope to create highly skilled job opportunities in London and across the UK, whilst also providing the essential infrastructure needed to drive continued technological innovation and growth.
National Grid’s new substation site borders National Grid’s existing Iver 400kV substation in Buckinghamshire, which has reached capacity and cannot be expanded to meet the demand from data centres and other customers for connections in the area.
It has also faced questions as a utility on account of its emissions increasing to 7.4mt CO₂e, as reported in May 2025.
To tackle rising demand, the organisation is planning £35 billion (US$47.37m) of investment between 2026 to 2031 to connect both large sources of demand such as data centres and gigafactories, and new sources of electricity generation such as wind and solar.
“Upgrades to the electricity network like this are at the heart of building the industries of our future and support our Plan for Change to deliver economic growth and skilled jobs across the UK,” explains Energy Minister Michael Shanks.
“It comes as we progress our reforms to the grid connections queue that will speed up the time it takes to get high-growth firms, like data centres and AI hubs, plugged into the grid – while also fast-tracking projects that will scale up clean, homegrown power by 2030.”
Requests from data centres to connect to the Uxbridge Moor substation will require around 1.8GW of new capacity – equivalent to adding a mid-sized city to the grid on the outskirts of London.
When built, it will be the largest new substation on National Grid’s network by gigawatt capacity.
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