National Grid Electricity Transmission at a glance
Current figures — last updated 2026-06-25- Legal name
- National Grid Electricity Transmission plc (NGET)
- Parent group
- National Grid plc (listed)
- Region
- England and Wales
- Voltages
- 132 kV, 275 kV, 400 kV
- Regulator
- Ofgem (RIIO-T3, 2026–2031)
- Runs the grid?
- No — NESO does (since 2024)
What National Grid Electricity Transmission owns
NGET holds one of the three high-voltage transmission licences in Great Britain, and by far the largest. Its job is to move bulk power across England and Wales, and increasingly to pull renewable power down from the Scottish border to where people live.
Extra-high-voltage lines
Thousands of kilometres of 400 kV and 275 kV overhead lines and pylons, plus underground and subsea cables, forming the motorway of the English and Welsh grid.
Substations
Hundreds of large substations where power is switched, transformed and handed over to the regional distribution networks that own the local cables.
New grid links
A programme branded "The Great Grid Upgrade", including new lines and subsea links to carry offshore and Scottish wind to demand centres. This is where most of its investment now goes.
The belief to drop: "National Grid runs the power grid"
It used to. Not since 2024. The job of running the grid in real time, matching supply to demand every second, was separated from National Grid and taken into public ownership as the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
Why split them? Because the company that owns the wires also profits from building more of them. Letting that same company decide how much new wire the country needs was a conflict of interest. NESO, publicly owned, now makes those calls independently. NGET went back to one job: owning and maintaining the England-and-Wales network. This matters to you because the body planning Britain's grid is no longer a listed company answering to shareholders.
| Role | Who | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Owns the wires (E&W) | National Grid Electricity Transmission | Builds and maintains the high-voltage network. Cannot be switched. |
| Runs the system (GB) | NESO | Balances supply and demand in real time; plans the future grid. Publicly owned. |
| Sells you power | Your supplier | Buys electricity, bills you, the only link you can switch. |
Who do I actually call? Quick check
For a household problem, National Grid Electricity Transmission is almost never the answer. Pick your situation and the tool tells you who handles it. Every answer is also in the table underneath.
| Situation | NGET? | DNO (105) | Supplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power cut on your street | No | Yes | No |
| Downed wire / danger | No | Yes + 999 | No |
| Bill, tariff, meter | No | No | Yes |
| New home connection / EV charger | No | Yes | No |
| Connect a power station / large load | Yes | No | No |
Why your bill pays for new pylons in England
NGET is a regulated monopoly. Ofgem caps its allowed revenue under a five-year framework (RIIO-T3, 2026–2031). Suppliers pay the transmission charge and pass it into your unit rate. Here is the part worth understanding.
England is on the receiving end of Britain's grid bottleneck. When the grid cannot carry Scottish wind south, NESO fires up gas plants in England instead. In 2025 that replacement gas cost around £1.08 billion, the bulk of the country's £1.46bn constraint bill.
NGET's biggest projects, the new lines and subsea links in "The Great Grid Upgrade", exist to remove that bottleneck. Yes, building them nudges network charges up now (Ofgem expects network costs on the average bill to rise by around £108 by 2031, mostly offset by efficiencies, for a net ~£30). But the prize is cutting a far larger constraint bill that is heading toward £8 billion a year by 2030 if nothing is built.
National Grid Electricity Transmission: frequently asked questions
National Grid Electricity Transmission owns and maintains the high-voltage transmission network in England and Wales: the pylons and 400 kV and 275 kV lines that carry bulk power from generators to the regional distribution networks. Since 2024 it no longer operates the system in real time, that is now NESO. It does not sell electricity and does not bill households.
NGET is the licensed transmission company; National Grid plc is its listed parent group. When people search "National Grid share price", they mean the plc. This page is about NGET, the physical network in England and Wales. National Grid plc also owns gas transmission and overseas networks, but NGET specifically holds the England-and-Wales electricity transmission licence.
No. Call 105, free, 24/7. It routes you to your local distribution network operator (the DNO), which owns the cables to your home and fixes faults. National Grid Electricity Transmission owns the high-voltage backbone, not your street's supply, and has no household phone line. If you can see a downed line or a fire, also call 999.
The England-and-Wales transmission system runs mainly at 400 kV and 275 kV (400,000 and 275,000 volts), with some 132 kV. For comparison, the supply to your home is 230 volts. The extra-high voltage is what lets power travel hundreds of miles with small losses; it is stepped down in stages by the distribution network before it reaches you.
It does not operate in Scotland. NGET owns transmission in England and Wales only. In Scotland the high-voltage network is owned by SP Transmission (south) and SSEN Transmission (north). All three are directed in real time by NESO.