Documents obtained by this outlet reveal that the UK government has been planning a comprehensive, classified overhaul of the national energy grid, codenamed Operation Phoenix. The 47-page dossier, leaked from within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, outlines a rapid transition to a decentralised, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) network designed to weather the coming decade’s climatic and geopolitical storms.
The plan, which officials have denied exists until now, proposes building a ring of undersea and underground HVDC cables connecting floating offshore wind farms in the North Sea with pumped-hydro storage caverns in Scotland and Wales. The first stage, due for completion by 2029, would decommission five gas-fired power plants and replace them with grid-scale batteries and cryogenic energy storage. The second stage, if implemented, would require an act of Parliament to nationalise the transmission infrastructure, effectively removing it from private hands.
The leaked documents acknowledge that current projections for renewable capacity are “optimistic to the point of delusion” given global supply chain constraints on rare-earth metals. They propose a parallel investment in small modular reactors, sited on decommissioned nuclear submarine bases. A memo from the National Grid’s chief operating officer warns that without this plan, the UK faces “rolling blackouts by 2032 during winter anticyclonic gloom” when solar generation falls below 5% of summer peak.
The timing is no coincidence. The leak comes as the European Union finalises its own Critical Raw Materials Act, which will prioritise member states for battery-grade lithium and cobalt. The UK, operating outside the EU’s framework, would have to secure its own supplies. One annex within the dossier lists “alternate sources of graphite from recycled urban mine deposits” as a national security priority.
Environmental groups have reacted with a mixture of alarm and cautious approval. The Architects’ Climate Action Network points out that the plan calls for doubling the height of onshore turbines in national parks, a move likely to face legal challenges. Meanwhile, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has been given advance notice of the document and has issued a statement describing it as “a necessary evil in a world where we have already passed 1.2 degrees of warming.”
The carbon footprint of constructing the new grid is estimated at 18 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, roughly the same as the entire construction sector’s annual emissions. But the documents argue that this is a “one-time cost” that will pay back within three years of operation, because the current grid loses 8% of its energy through resistive heating. HVDC cables lose less than 3% over the same distance.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has refused to comment on the authenticity of the documents, but has not denied their existence. A source familiar with the Treasury’s position tells me that the Chancellor was briefed on Operation Phoenix last month and “did not immediately dismiss it,” though no funding has been allocated yet.
What is clear is that the government is planning for a scenario in which the lights stay on only by reorganising the physical architecture of the nation’s energy supply. The leaked documents paint a picture of a country that has finally accepted the scale of the challenge. The question is whether the public will accept the scale of the response.
