London, June 11, 2026, 13:03 BST
- National Grid was last seen at 1,211.00p in delayed London action, up 11.50p, or 0.96%, at 12:47 BST.
- Britain’s energy system operator said it has offered grid connections to 713 clean-energy projects, totaling 37GW of capacity.
- Investors are watching to see if connection reforms will help National Grid carry out its massive network spending plan.
National Grid shares climbed in London Thursday, as investors saw signs Britain’s backed-up electricity-connection queue may be moving. That speaks directly to the case for owning one of the FTSE 100’s largest regulated utilities. The stock was last at 1,211.00p, up 11.50p, or 0.96%, on lagged data at 12:47 BST, after closing at 1,199.50p.
National Grid shares moved after the National Energy System Operator, not the company itself, made an announcement. NESO said Wednesday that it has now issued more than half of the connection offers for transmission and distribution projects planned before 2030. That’s a shift for a stock that’s tied to grid demand becoming approved assets on the balance sheet.
NESO said it has issued offers for 713 out of 1,223 projects, totaling 37 gigawatts in new electricity capacity. That covers offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, battery storage and hydro. The offers tell developers when and where they can connect to the grid and what upgrades they need. NESO said the effort could help unlock as much as £40 billion in clean-energy investment each year.
National Grid’s value depends on capital spending. Regulated utilities like National Grid earn money on approved investments. The company defines its regulated asset base as the invested capital it can get a return on. That means if National Grid builds approved network assets efficiently, the asset base goes up and regulators let it earn more.
National Grid has told investors it expects to spend at least £70 billion in the five years through fiscal 2031, with about £31 billion going to UK electricity transmission and around £9 billion to distribution. The company is aiming for asset growth of about 10% a year and underlying earnings-per-share growth between 8% and 10% a year, starting from a fiscal 2026 base.
The difference matters: NESO is an Ofgem-licensed system operator. National Grid Electricity Transmission runs and owns the high-voltage power grid in England and Wales. So Wednesday’s news wasn’t a new National Grid contract. Instead, investors saw it as a signal—stronger project pipelines and concrete connection plans could boost demand for the wires, substations and upgrades National Grid builds and gets paid for.
Investors didn’t jump in on the news. According to AJ Bell, National Grid is still trading below its 52-week high of 1,428.50p. Market cap stands at around £60.27 billion and dividend yield at 4.04%. The shares are still a bet on delivery as well as clean-energy policy.
Bulls have fresh data to work with. National Grid said in May it invested a record £11.6 billion for the year ended March 31, 2026. Underlying earnings per share rose 8% at constant currency to 78.0p. The company’s underlying EPS figure leaves out items National Grid says muddy comparisons with prior years.
Chief Executive Zoë Yujnovich called it the “largest investment programme in our history” as the company posted results, saying spending would both modernise and expand networks in the UK and the US Northeast. The company lifted its full-year dividend to 48.49p, a 3.8% rise. That matches its policy of growing the payout with UK CPIH inflation. The consumer-price measure includes owner-occupiers’ housing costs. Investegate
Grid reform is giving the demand case for the stock more support in the short run. NESO’s chief operating officer Kayte O’Neill said “connections reform is delivering real results.” The new system is supposed to put ready energy projects ahead of speculative ones, replacing first-come, first-served. National Energy System Operator (NESO)
There’s still a big gap between offers and actually building the steel in the ground. NESO said thousands of kilometres of lines and cables have yet to be built, and called for faster planning reforms. National Grid closed fiscal 2026 with £44.16 billion in net debt, so delays, climbing financing costs, political pressure on customers’ bills or tighter regulation could all hit the returns investors are looking for.
National Grid’s next hurdle is how fast those connection offers translate into real projects during RIIO-T3, the UK price-control window from April 2026 to March 2031. The company is sticking to its forecast for 13%-15% underlying EPS growth in fiscal 2027 as allowed revenue rises. The stock’s move Thursday shows investors are looking for proof the grid build-out isn’t falling behind.
