Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent estimate she has made of the cost to the National Grid of the London Power Tunnels project; and how much of that cost is related to (a) civil engineering, (b) electrical engineering and (c) equipment.

National Grid has said that the overall cost of the project is around £1bn and while it is always difficult to breakdown costs simply into different engineering elements, they have estimated the following:

Tunnels and associated mechanical and electrical work 50%

High voltage cable procurement, installation and testing 15%

Substation works (including civil ground works at these locations) 26%

Land and required permissions 9%

Ofgem is responsible for regulating National Grid, to ensure that the work they do represents value for money for consumers.