UK's National Grid to invest up to $44 billion in transmission business

(Reuters) - Britain's National Grid said on Wednesday it would invest up to 35 billion pounds ($44.45 billion) over the five years to March 2031 as per its business plan for its transmission business.

The company, which runs Britain's energy systems and operates electricity and gas businesses in New York and Massachusetts, said investments include more than 11 billion pounds towards maintaining and upgrading existing transmission networks, and construction works for three Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) projects in the UK.

The ASTI projects form a key part of National Grid's plan to build new electricity network infrastructure required to reduce the UK's reliance on fossil fuels by connecting 50 Gigawatt of offshore wind by 2030.

Britain has a target to largely decarbonise its power sector by 2030, which will mean reducing its reliance on gas-fired power plants and rapidly increasing its renewable power capacity.

National Grid said around 24 billion pounds would be allotted to pipeline investments.

($1 = 0.7873 pounds)

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)