National Grid Regulatory News (NG.)

1 December 2021

National Grid publishes final RIIO-ED2 business plans

Western Power Distribution (WPD), the recently acquired UK Electricity Distribution business of National Grid, will today submit its final business plans to Ofgem for the 2023-2028 RIIO-ED2 period. These plans have been developed following our largest ever consultation process with over 25,000 stakeholders who have provided unparalleled scrutiny in co-creating them.

The plans include a financial framework that takes account of recent regulatory precedent as well as the uncertainty around the pace of the energy transition and the impact it will have on electricity distribution investment. Given this, it is critical for all stakeholders that we have the right incentives, and an appropriate level of return, to attract the investment required to enable net zero goals.

WPD's plan has a baseline totex spend of £6.7bn over the five years. This investment represents an annual average step up of nearly 30% compared to ED1 levels, which will fund our business plan commitments to provide the system capability to cater for a further 1.5 million EVs and 600,000 heat pumps, whilst maintaining strong reliability and resilience across our networks.

We look forward to engaging further with all our stakeholders as we explain and debate our plans, including through the open forums from March 2022, ahead of draft determinations from Ofgem in summer 2022, and final determinations in late 2022.

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