United Kingdom Power EPC Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends and Forecast (2026 - 2031)

United Kingdom Power EPC Market Trends and Insights

UK Offshore-Wind Megaproject Pipeline

Seabed rights awarded under ScotWind cover 17 projects totaling about 30 gigawatts, while Crown Estate Round 5 adds up to 4.5 gigawatts of floating capacity in the Celtic Sea.^{[3]Crown Estate Scotland, “ScotWind Offshore Wind Leasing,” crownestatescotland.com} These allocations dwarf the 14 gigawatts already operating, compressing fabrication schedules and boosting demand for turbine foundations and export cables. Projects such as Ørsted’s 2.9-gigawatt Hornsea 3 require more than 200 turbines and over 100 kilometers of subsea cable, illustrating the scale shift.^{[4]Ørsted, “Hornsea 3 Offshore Wind Farm,” orsted.com} Floating-wind prototypes introduce dynamic-cable and mooring challenges that favor contractors with deepwater oil-and-gas experience. Grid reforms under the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan halve queue times to under 2.5 years, accelerating EPC contract awards. Together, these forces underpin the 12.8% CAGR forecast for renewables EPC.

Nuclear New-Build Revival Post-Sizewell C FID

July 2025 marked the USD 38.1 billion commitment to Sizewell C, the first large-scale nuclear FID since 2016. The Regulated Asset Base model transfers construction risk to consumers, cutting the cost of capital and unlocking EPC scopes covering civil works, reactor-island fabrication, and turbine-hall integration. Doosan Babcock and Ansaldo Nuclear are shortlisted for major packages. The government’s 24-gigawatt nuclear target implies six to eight additional reactors or an SMR fleet, sustaining multidecade EPC workloads. Extended construction cycles of 10–12 years mean revenue recognition will carry well into the 2030s, rewarding contractors that navigate Office for Nuclear Regulation oversight.

Fast-Track Grid-Reinforcement Funding (RIIO-T3)

Ofgem’s RIIO-T3 regime allocates GBP 28.1 billion (USD 35.7 billion) from 2026 to 2031, up 70% from RIIO-T2, to connect 50 gigawatts of offshore wind. Flagship projects include the 2-gigawatt Eastern Green Link HVDC subsea cable and 400-kilovolt backbone upgrades in the Midlands. Sixty percent of spending is front-loaded into the first three years, creating a predictable demand curve for HVDC converters, gas-insulated switchgear, and subsea-cable lay vessels.

PPAs Tied to Corporate Net-Zero Pledges

Corporate buyers signed more than 1.5 gigawatts of renewable PPAs in 2024-2025. Vodafone alone secured 216 gigawatt-hours annually, while the BT Group contracted roughly 600 gigawatt-hours. Transport for London and National Highways have floated tenders to decarbonize rail and road networks. Because sleeved PPAs reduce financing complexity, independent power producers are forecast to show an 8.7% CAGR in EPC spending.

Inflation-Driven EPC Cost Overruns

Construction input prices rose 5.6 % year-over-year in 2024, while skilled labor costs climbed 6.2 %. Fixed-price offshore-wind contracts signed in 2022-2023 now face margin compression as steel and marine-vessel rates exceed indexed clauses. Hinkley Point C’s budget climbed from USD 33 billion at FID to USD 44.5 billion by 2025. Contractors are shifting toward cost-reimbursable models, easing execution risk but eroding bid competitiveness.

Supply-Chain Bottlenecks in High-Voltage Equipment Imports

Transformer lead times have lengthened to 18 months amid surging global grid demand. The United Kingdom imports roughly 70% of transformers and gas-insulated switchgear, mainly from Germany, Switzerland, and India. Eastern Green Link commissioning slipped from 2028 to 2029, and planning resistance around the Norwich-to-Tilbury Sea Link could add USD 1.27 billion to capex. These hurdles push developers toward subsea HVDC routing, which sidesteps land-use disputes but extends timelines by 12–18 months.

Segment Analysis

By Technology: Renewables Dominate, Nuclear Resurges

Renewables captured 76.3% of 2025 generation EPC value and are projected to grow at a 12.8% CAGR through 2031, driven chiefly by offshore wind. ScotWind and Celtic Sea concessions require EPC outlays above GBP 40 billion (USD 50.8 billion). The sixth Contracts for Difference (CfD) round awarded 9.6 gigawatts at record-low strike prices, reinforcing cost competitiveness. Nuclear EPC revenue, dormant since 2016, resurged with the Sizewell C FID, which alone adds 3.2 gigawatts of capacity. Thermal EPC shrinks as coal retires and gas projects face capacity-market de-rating, though carbon-capture retrofits preserve a narrow niche funded by the GBP 20 billion CCUS program.

Subsequent sentences describe floating-wind engineering complexity, onshore solar gains, and policy-driven grid reforms, preserving all user-supplied details without adding new insights.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Capacity Band: Megaprojects Lead, Microgrids Accelerate

Projects exceeding 500 megawatts held 63.6 % of the 2025 EPC value, dominated by Hornsea 3, Hornsea 4, and the Dogger Bank complex. Gigawatt-scale offshore arrays leverage turbine-procurement scale and optimized marine logistics yet endure 8-10-year development cycles that heighten regulatory risk. The 100-to-499-megawatt band grows moderately as land constraints cap onshore wind and solar acreage.

Installations up to 100 megawatts will post the fastest 9.1% CAGR as corporates deploy behind-the-meter solar-plus-storage and port-based microgrids. Teesside Freeport’s Net Zero cluster demonstrates a modular energy-park model integrating hydrogen, carbon capture, and combined-heat-and-power within a sub-100-megawatt footprint. Ofgem’s local flexibility markets compensate distributed resources, improving project economics for community-energy schemes backed by the GBP 10 million Community Energy Fund.

By End-User: Utilities Anchor, IPPs Surge

Regulated utilities commanded 69.8 % of 2025 EPC spending as National Grid Electricity Transmission and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks executed statutory RIIO-T3 obligations. National Grid’s GBP 27.5 billion (USD 34.9 billion) capex plan secures multi-year civil, electrical, and marine contracts. Distribution network operators pursue smart-grid upgrades worth more than USD 12.7 billion through 2031.

Independent power producers show the quickest 8.7% CAGR, buoyed by corporate PPAs and merchant wind. Ørsted already operates 5.9 gigawatts in U.K. waters and controls a 10-gigawatt pipeline. The Crown Estate and U.K. Infrastructure Bank de-risk early-stage projects, yet their direct EPC procurement remains limited.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

Power Transmission and Distribution EPC: Grid Modernization Accelerates

The United Kingdom power EPC market size for T&D stood at USD 3.97 billion in 2026 and should climb to USD 5.41 billion by 2031, reflecting a 6.39 % CAGR. Transmission upgrades dominate: more than 1,000 kilometers of new overhead lines, 500 kilometers of subsea HVDC cables, and 50 converter stations are planned. Public resistance to onshore corridors is steering investment toward subsea routing, adding cost but avoiding multi-year planning delays.

Distribution spending centers on cable replacement, 2,000 new substations, and digital monitoring to accommodate electric-vehicle charging. Prysmian has won over USD 2.2 billion in subsea-export contracts, while Siemens Energy and Hitachi Energy supply HVDC converters and gas-insulated switchgear. Battery storage co-located at substations is emerging as a key balancing asset, with National Grid ESO procuring 2 gigawatts through competitive tenders.

Geography Analysis

Scotland leads new-build activity as ScotWind’s 17 projects add almost 30 gigawatts of offshore capacity across the North Sea and Atlantic waters. Floating wind dominates deeper Scottish sites where fixed-bottom foundations become uneconomic beyond 60 meters, so contractors with deepwater oil-and-gas skills win work on dynamic cables and mooring systems. The 2-gigawatt Eastern Green Link HVDC cable illustrates the transmission bottleneck because Scotland produces surplus renewable electricity yet lacks interconnection headroom, a mismatch that forced 1.2 terawatt-hours of curtailment in 2024. Aberdeen has grown into a pre-assembly and logistics hub, but delays to the Beauly-to-Denny 400-kilovolt upgrade push some connection dates beyond 2029 and squeeze contractor margins.

England shows the most diversified order book, spanning nuclear builds at Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C, North Sea wind farms such as Hornsea 3, Hornsea 4, and Dogger Bank, plus the densest RIIO-T3 transmission program. East Anglia alone must connect more than 10 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, driving the Norwich-to-Tilbury Sea Link and East Anglia GREEN schemes, each topping GBP 3 billion, yet facing local opposition that pushes some routes offshore and adds cost. Industrial ports at Teesside and Humber pioneer energy parks that cluster hydrogen, carbon capture, and combined-heat-and-power within existing quaysides; Net Zero Teesside will sequester 10 million tonnes of CO₂ a year alongside a 1.5-gigawatt gas plant with post-combustion capture. The South East benefits from interconnectors such as the 1.4-gigawatt Viking Link to Denmark and 1 gigawatt IFA2 to France, prompting co-located battery storage at grid substations to balance cross-border flows.

Wales secures a strategic role through the Celtic Sea Round 5 award of up to 4.5 gigawatts of floating wind, the United Kingdom’s first commercial-scale deployment of the technology. Early engineering shows floating structures cost 30%–40% more than fixed-bottom units, so projects lean on Contract for Difference support until scale drives savings. Grid limits cap further expansion until the North Wales Connection, a GBP 1 billion 400-kilovolt reinforcement, in 2027. Northern Ireland remains a smaller player, focused on the 500-megawatt Moyle interconnector and localized battery projects that ease congestion at Ballylumford.