National Grid has begun multi-million pound engineering work that will support the creation of a 40GWh factory near Bridgwater.
The production facility that the works support, run by the Tata Group’s global battery business Agratas, is due to open in 2026 and aims to supply close to half of the batteries needed by the UK automotive industry by the early 2030s. Piling work for the site, which began in 2024, has now been completed.
National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) is building two interim 33kV connections to power the site, on the 620-acre Gravity Smart Campus, until a high voltage 400kV substation by National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is complete.
Agratas requested that the factory connect to the UK’s high voltage transmission network; NGET will build the new substation at Woolavington.
Jefferson Weber, head of UK construction for Agratas, said the connection is “fundamental” for “what will be the UK’s largest battery manufacturing facility”.
Work has commenced on the first NGED connection that will see a bulk supply point at Dunwear with two 132/33kV transformers along with circuit breaker bays close to an existing grid supply point nearby. The grid transformers will feed a new 33kV switchboard from which the Gravity connection and other customers will be supplied.
The Gravity campus will also have an Independent Connection Provider switchroom, which the second connection will serve via five miles of new cabling from the Bridgwater bulk supply point substation.
NGED president Cordi O’Hara said the battery factory at Gravity is set to bring “thousands of skilled jobs and provide a boost to the regional economy”, adding that the work by National Grid is “a clear example of networks acting as a catalyst for growth”.
According to energy minister Michael Shanks, the works will help bring 4,000 highly skilled clean energy jobs to Bridgwater as the electric vehicle (EV) battery factory is established. He continued: “In Somerset, and across the country, the clean energy transition is revitalising our industrial heartlands and bringing opportunity, growth and jobs to our communities.”
On National Grid’s distribution network in 2024, generation connection requests were up 28% on the previous year and the operator said there have been twice as many EV charging connections in the past two years than all previous years combined.
The battery manufacturing factory is the latest major grid connection National Grid is undertaking across its distribution and transmission networks as part of its £30 billion investment to upgrade the grid to meet future demand.
Other recent major works include the UK’s largest transmission connected battery at Drax in Yorkshire.
