National Grid Buys Teesside Land for Massive AI Substation

National Grid has purchased 29.5 hectares of land at Dorman Point on Teesside to construct the largest electricity substation in the United Kingdom. The facility is designed to provide up to 3.2GW of capacity to support a planned artificial intelligence datacentre spanning nearly 500,000 square metres at the Teesworks site.

Ben Houchen, mayor of the Tees Valley combined authority, stated that securing sufficient power is critical for the UK to compete with the US and Gulf nations for AI investment. He argued that the capacity is necessary to ensure sensitive data remains on British soil rather than being stored in Texas or Abu Dhabi.

The project aligns with a draft national policy statement from the Government of the United Kingdom that characterizes datacentres as fundamental to the national economy. While the development aims to drive regional economic growth, the government has emphasized the need to ensure host communities benefit from such expansions. Balfour Beatty and Steel River Power are heavily involved in the delivery of the substation.