Scotland’s oldest electricity transmission line pulled down

Scotland’s oldest electricity transmission line has been pulled down nearly a century after it was built to bring power to heavy industry and shipyards.

Known as the G-Route, the line was built in 1929 to connect the Yoker, Dellingburn and Braehead coal-powered power stations in Glasgow and Renfrewshire.

It was constructed following the 1926 Electricity Act, which kicked off the connection of more than 120 coal-fired power stations around Britain using overhead transmission lines.

One hundred years ago, a group of ambitious engineers began work to connect up Britain’s electrical grid and bring electricity into homes, changing people’s lives forever

In 1920, just 6% of British households – around 500,000 homes – had access to electricity.

The line’s customers changed over the decades since it was built, and before it was switched off last year, it served 70,000 homes and businesses in Glasgow, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde, including the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Braehead.

Transmission network operator SP Energy Networks has now pulled down the 62 aging steel towers that carried the line, and this section of the network is now served by 182 wooden poles, nicknamed “trident” due to their design.

The company said the new poles provide a more “resilient and reliable” service to customers, and enable greater electrification of the network.

Richard Wylie, lead design engineer at SP Energy Networks, said: “One hundred years ago, a group of ambitious engineers began work to connect up Britain’s electrical grid and bring electricity into homes, changing people’s lives forever.

“These transformative towers helped open up access to electricity to those who had never had it before – modernising and evolving the home to be able to adopt revolutionary appliances that are now a regular part of everyday life.

“A century on and we’re embarking on a multibillion-pound investment in our transmission network – the greatest rewiring of the network since it was built – to open up capacity on the grid to transport clean, homegrown electricity to power communities across Britain towards an all-electric future.”

The company said it had a £10.6 billion plan to help “rewire Britain” and provide critical electricity infrastructure.

This includes, it said, 12 new substations, 450km of upgraded circuits, 87km of upgraded overhead lines, and 35km of underground cables.