The operators of the Britain’s national grid should be made liable for damages over delayed upgrades to the electricity network, the owner of the Cruachan hydro-electric power plant in the Highlands has stated.
Will Gardiner, the CEO of Drax Group, told The Telegraph that the National Energy System Operator (NESO) and the other companies behind Britain’s power networks, which include Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) and SSEN in Scotland, should be accountable for failures which are holding up new electricity connections.
Drax reported that Cruachan planned outage on units 3 and 4, caused by grid connection failure in December 2025 by assets owned by Scottish Power Energy Networks, are expected to be restored in 2027, after discussions with SPEN.
The recent summer heatwave has placed massive pressure of Britain’s energy grid as it struggles to connect the increasing amount of renewables to the national infrastructure. The Drax boss said the upgrade of Cruachan turbines has been progressing with work continuing to resolve grid access restrictions.
Gardiner has called on Miatta Fahnabulleh, the new Energy Secretary for Security and Net Zero, to change the law to allow power plant developers “to be paid damages when connections are not made on a date for which there is contractual certainty.”
He says the system requires fundamental changes because the transmission and distribution companies have no liability for missing connection dates.
The paper reported that NESO and the networks said they are “continuing to issue offers to transmission and distribution projects under the agreed join industry plan.”
Meanwhile Gardiner, in his six month update, said: “Drax has delivered a good performance in the first half. Our colleagues and supply chain partners have been working hard to help keep the lights on for millions of UK households and businesses through a period of acute geopolitical uncertainty and challenging weather.
“We are at a key moment in Drax’s transition, investing to create a larger and broader portfolio with more MWs under management that can provide more power to the country when needed. Over the years we have grown the business from a single-site biomass generator to a multi-site portfolio operating a broader range of generation technologies.
“Critically, through our growth plans for batteries, OCGTs and our Selby site, we are driving economic growth across the country, in alignment with the policy priorities of the UK Government. We are also actively developing options for more renewables, including the proposed acquisition of Bluefield Solar Income Fund, and our trading and optimisation platform.”
“Taken together we believe that these actions can support energy security and will increase the group’s generation capacity by around 85 per cent compared to 2025. As a result, we expect to increase our earnings, deliver value for our stakeholders, support growth and attractive returns for shareholders.”
In 2025, Drax celebrated 60 years of operations at Cruachan Power Station.
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