Company: NEWEN
Filing Date: 2025-05-15
Form Type: 6-K
Source: 0001654954-25-005651
Chunk: 45

Company: NATIONAL GRID PLC
Filing Date: 2025-05-15
Form: 6-K
Chunk 45
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 versus the prior year, primarily due to exceptional charges in the current year compared with exceptional credits in 2023/24 (see note 4 for details). Underlying operating profit decreased to £380 million at constant currency. This was driven primarily by lower interconnector revenues as market spreads returned to more historically normal conditions. Underlying interconnector performance remained strong, delivering above regulated returns, with three of the interconnectors performing above the cap, generating additional returns for UK consumers.

■ Capital investment, which includes investment in joint ventures and associates was £378 million, £284 million lower than the prior year (£283 million lower at constant currency). This decrease followed completion of the Viking Link to Denmark. In addition, the investments made in our National Grid Renewables and Grain LNG businesses have been excluded from reported capital expenditure following the held for sale treatment of these business for accounting purposes from October this year.

#### Operational performance
During the year, we have seen good operational performance across the National Grid Ventures portfolio.

■ Interconnectors: We have seen good availability across our interconnector fleet, with Viking Link reaching 92% availability, a strong performance for a new asset. IFA2 experienced unplanned outages during the year which, together with outages at BritNed, contributed to an overall interconnector availability of 86% across the year. The continued strong performance of our interconnector portfolio enabled the return of a further £89 million to UK consumers this year, part of a total of £277 million returned to reduce customer bills in the last two years, with a further £149 million to be returned over the next two years resulting in a total benefit to customers of £426 million.

■ Offshore Hybrid Assets (OHAs): We continued to work on our LionLink project development with our partner TenneT, and in November 2024 the project was awarded regulatory approval to the OHA pilot scheme with Ofgem confirming benefits to UK consumers. We also continued the early development of the next generation of interconnectors, including work with Ofgem to establish the regulatory regime for OHAs which was approved by the regulator in April 2025.

■ Grain LNG: We have completed the preparation and launched the divestment process of the Grain LNG terminal. We expect to announce a transaction later this year. Operationally, we have continued to make good progress on the CAP 25 expansion project at Grain LNG. The project reached several important milestones, including a successful hydrotest of the new CAP 25 tank, for which commercial operations