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UK to offer £250 annual discount for homes near upgraded pylons
Eligible households can receive the bill discount for up to 10 years, with 43 transmission projects included.
The UK has published the first locations eligible for a bill discount scheme that pays households £250 a year if they live within 1,600ft of upgraded electricity pylons and substations, under what is sometimes called the “pounds for pylons” program.
Customers living near 43 transmission projects across Britain can qualify for the payment for up to 10 years. About two-thirds of the projects are in Scotland, with additional upgrades planned north of London and across East Anglia, the Midlands, and North Wales, according to BBC Business.
UK ministers said the discounts are intended to encourage acceptance of replacement and upgrades to decades old network infrastructure needed to distribute renewable power and bolster energy security. UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast that the power system has seen “woeful underinvestment,” and he argued the pylons are crucial to National Grid resilience despite local disruption.
Critics say the payments are too small compensation, while the government said insufficient grid capacity can limit how much electricity wind farms can send, sometimes leading to wind farms being paid to switch off. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the grid was largely designed for coal and gas power and needs major upgrades to accommodate growing renewables, and Octopus Energy’s Greg Jackson described the system as inefficient, brittle, and expensive, BBC Business reported.