Balfour Beatty Wins Birkhill Wood Substation Phase for 4.22 GW Dogger Bank
National Grid awarded Balfour Beatty the first phase of the Birkhill Wood substation in East Yorkshire, built to connect 4.22 GW of Dogger Bank wind. Main works start in 2027; no value disclosed.
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Birkhill Wood substation as shown in Balfour Beatty's computer-generated image; the site is not yet built.
Image: Balfour Beatty
Source · Press image from the Balfour Beatty newsroom, used for news reporting.
Balfour Beatty said on 22 October 2026 that National Grid has awarded it the first phase of the Birkhill Wood substation, a 400 kV site in East Yorkshire, which is designed to connect 4.22 GW of offshore wind from three planned Dogger Bank projects.
The contract covers Early Contractor Involvement, meaning detailed design plus enabling works to prepare the site, Balfour Beatty said in its press release. Enabling works are already underway and main construction is expected to start in 2027. Neither company disclosed a contract value. The award sits under National Grid's £8 billion Electricity Transmission Partnership, where Balfour Beatty has been delivery partner for North East England since 2025.
The 4.22 GW figure comes from National Grid, according to Electrical Review. Balfour Beatty put the same connection at enough output for about four million homes. For anyone planning large loads in the north of England, the point is where the power lands: Electrical Review reports that the existing Creyke Beck substation cannot take the volume coming from the Dogger Bank area, so a new 400 kV node is the precondition for moving that output onto the network.
The substation is designed to connect 4.22 GW, National Grid's figure per Electrical Review; the three projects are each planned at 1.5 GW or up to 1.5 GW, Offshore Wind reports.
Illustration (AI-generated)
What the substation connects
According to Offshore Wind, the three projects are Dogger Bank South East and Dogger Bank South West, each planned at 1.5 GW and developed by RWE and Masdar, and Dogger Bank D, planned at up to 1.5 GW by SSE Renewables and Equinor. The two South projects received development consent in May 2026, with final investment decisions targeted for 2027 and commissioning expected in 2031 and 2032 respectively.
World Construction Network reports that the site lies about 700 m north of Creyke Beck and will use gas-insulated switchgear, which houses most equipment in a single building. Site constraints ruled out an air-insulated design, the outlet said. Balfour Beatty expects the overall project to employ around 200 people at peak.
Electrical Review also reports that Birkhill Wood is the northern connection point for the proposed North Humber to High Marnham 400 kV reinforcement, which includes about 90 km of new overhead line. That ties the substation to the wider north-south transmission build-out rather than to the wind farms alone. Voltgrid News reported earlier on National Grid's Weston Marsh substation approval for Outer Dowsing.
What is not confirmed yet
The substation is a precondition, not a guarantee. Dogger Bank D still needs development consent and a final investment decision, according to Offshore Wind, and the two South projects have not yet reached investment decisions. If any of the three slips, the 4.22 GW connection would fill later than planned.
Trade reports disagree on when the substation itself received planning consent and on when it will be commissioned, so this article cites neither. The contract value remains undisclosed.
