Case Study
Project: Longcross Park
Location: Chertsey, Surrey
Client: UK Power Distribution (UKPD) for Ark Datacentres
Network operator: UK Power Distribution (UKPD)
Timescale: 23 months (including early engagement for major project delivery)
CLM delivery team: Volume Utilities Team
A landlocked Point of Connection (POC), 25 affected parties and six separate agreements were needed to secure the path to connection for Longcross Park, Ark’s hydrogen-ready, AI-ready, zero-carbon datacentre.
Our brief
With two data centres and a total capacity of 54MW, this was a project we were ready to roll our sleeves up for. Our brief was to secure the path to connection for 2 x 132kVA IDNO cables from an existing UKPN Primary Substation. The total offsite route covered eight miles, across multiple pockets of third-party land.
Challenges
From notice periods issued to a local football club, to managing stretches of privately owned highway, and traffic management plans which stretched to three weeks from three days, alongside one of the most challenging agreements we’ve ever drawn up for 100m of route. The scale of this project wasn’t the challenge for us, it was the location of the POC and the number of third parties involved which meant we had our work cut out.
Delivery
Proactive communication was key to the success of this project – and that centred around weekly Teams calls. This enabled our team to deliver:
- 1 x onsite IDNO substation Lease
- 1 x DNO Crossing Agreement
- 1 x NGET IDNO Deed
- 1 x NGET Customer Deed
- 1 x IDNO Council Deed
- 1 x ICP Council Early Works Licence
Success was also down to the flexibility and knowledge of our team. There was no text-book solution to delivering this project, at every turn we had to rethink our approach and adapt our plans.
We delivered though and did so 13 months faster than NGET’s expectations for a project of this scale.
