The delay to Port Talbot’s new electric arc furnace — caused by the National Grid’s own infrastructure works running behind — is worse than feared, according to the former politician who spent years scrutinising the project.
David Rees, the former Labour MS for Aberavon and a long-standing chair of the Senedd’s cross-party group on steel, was responding to Tata Steel’s warning that the £1.25bn furnace could be held up by up to eight months, after the National Grid told the company its connection project was running late.
The grid operator needs to build two new substations and lay miles of underground cabling to power the furnace, and has blamed ground conditions and planning issues for the hold-up.
His comments relate to that grid connection — a separate issue from the recent fire at the site’s cold mill.
Rees said he had questioned the grid connection from the very start of the project.
“One of the questions I asked Tata at the beginning of the EAF project was about the grid connection, and were they sure that it would be ready by late 2027,” he said.
He said he had been told repeatedly that the National Grid had given assurances the work would be delivered on time.
“It’s a question I continued to ask every time we met to discuss the project, and every time I received the same assurances,” he said.
In recent months, he said, workers had begun raising concerns that the timeline was slipping.
“I had hoped it would only be a couple of months at worst, and that we would see the EAF operating in spring 2028,” he said.
“It now appears that that was too hopeful, and it is now moving into autumn 2028 before the EAF is operational.”
That timeline goes further than Tata’s own public position, which put the likely delay at six to eight months.
Rees called on the UK and Welsh governments to commit to getting the furnace running as quickly as possible and to minimise any further delay.
He said they “must get National Grid to guarantee this, and pay penalties if they fail to do so”.
The electric arc furnace is central to the future of steelmaking in Port Talbot, replacing the blast furnaces that closed in 2024 with the loss of around 2,000 jobs.
It is designed to make lower-carbon “green steel” by melting scrap in an electric furnace rather than burning coal — but it needs a major grid upgrade to power it.
“We all want to see steel once again being produced in Port Talbot, and it is imperative that this is done as soon as possible,” Rees said.
“Our town and workers deserve nothing less.”
