Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change The £60 Billion Plan To Rewire Britain | Ep227: John Pettigrew
Oct 8, 2025
John Pettigrew, the outgoing CEO of National Grid, reflects on his 35-year career, discussing the ambitious £60 billion investment plan aimed at rewiring Britain's energy system. He delves into the challenges posed by the surge in demand from AI data centres and the balance of decarbonisation, reliability, and affordability. Pettigrew shares insights on the race to build offshore wind transmission and lessons learned from significant outages in Spain and at Heathrow. He emphasizes the exciting transformation within the energy sector for new graduates.
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Massive Transmission Build-Out
- National Grid announced a £60 billion capital program for 2024–29 to scale up transmission investment dramatically.
- The plan doubles recent investment levels and increases annual project throughput from one major project to 17 over the next few years.
Ancillary Services Are The New Grid Currency
- Ancillary services markets are critical but opaque and change as generation mix shifts.
- National Grid/NESO have developed new ancillary products and third-party providers like batteries to supply technical services.
Spain Blackout Reveals Stability Gaps
- Spain's blackout showed renewables alone may not supply essential stability products like inertia and reactive power.
- Rapid recovery proved competent system operation, but gaps in obligations and ancillary procurement were exposed.