IN Brief:
- DESNZ has extended its four-nation electricity generation and supply dataset through 2025.
- Scotland recorded 20.8TWh of net electricity exports during 2025 as renewable generation remained strong.
- Northern Ireland recorded 578GWh of net imports, while renewable and non-renewable sources each supplied half of local generation.
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has extended its regional electricity generation and supply dataset through 2025, providing an updated view of how differently England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland contribute to and draw from the UK’s interconnected power system.
The release continues a national time series dating back to 2004, covering electricity generation, supply, and consumption across the four countries. DESNZ normally publishes the regional update with its December Energy Trends material, but the 2025 tables have been brought forward into the September 2026 statistical release.
The value of the data is not simply in ranking the four nations by generation. England’s population and electricity demand make it the largest system by a wide margin. The more useful engineering question is how local generation, consumption, renewable output, and transfers are diverging as new capacity connects in different parts of the country.
Scotland provides the clearest example. Official transfer statistics show it exported 21.7TWh of electricity during 2025 while importing 0.9TWh, producing net exports of 20.8TWh. That was higher than the 19.7TWh recorded in 2024 and reflects a generation base that regularly produces more electricity than is consumed within Scotland.
Renewable output is central to that balance. Scotland generated a record 38.5TWh of renewable electricity during 2025 and ended the year with 17.9GW of renewable generating capacity. Wind provides the largest contribution, creating periods when substantial volumes have to move south through the transmission system rather than being absorbed locally.
That makes transfer capability an integral part of the generation programme. A wind farm in northern or eastern Scotland can add national generating capacity without adding demand in the same location. The usefulness of its output therefore depends partly on substations, overhead lines, subsea cables, and other circuits capable of moving power towards load centres.
Projects such as Eastern Green Link 5 sit within that wider reinforcement programme. Additional north-south transfer capacity is being planned as renewable generation grows in Scotland and electricity demand rises in other parts of Great Britain.
Northern Ireland presents a different balance. Official statistics for calendar 2025 show 8,178GWh of electricity generated locally, divided evenly between renewable and non-renewable sources. Renewable generation totalled 4,073GWh, equivalent to 47% of gross final electricity consumption.
The region nevertheless imported more electricity than it exported, producing net imports of 578GWh during 2025. Northern Ireland is connected electrically to both Great Britain and Ireland, and cross-border flows form part of normal system operation rather than acting as a simple measure of whether domestic generation is adequate.
The latest rolling figures show that balance continuing to change. During the 12 months to June 2026, Northern Ireland generated 8,286GWh locally, with renewables providing 4,431GWh, or 53%. Net imports remained 578GWh. Renewable generation therefore exceeded non-renewable generation on the rolling annual measure even though imported electricity still formed part of the demand balance.
That distinction between generation and consumption becomes increasingly important as renewable shares rise. A region can produce more renewable electricity over a year while still importing during particular periods. Conversely, a net exporting region can require imports when local output falls or network conditions make transfers in another direction economic or necessary.
Annual figures also conceal the hourly demands placed on transmission infrastructure. Wind, solar, conventional generators, storage, and demand change continuously, while planned outages and faults remove individual circuits from service. The network therefore has to carry peak flows that may bear little resemblance to an annual average.
England and Wales add further combinations of thermal generation, nuclear, wind, solar, interconnection, and industrial demand. The updated DESNZ tables preserve one consistent framework for comparing those changes through 2025, rather than treating the UK electricity mix as geographically uniform.
The dataset also illustrates why generation targets cannot be separated from network development. Additional renewable capacity has the greatest system value when electricity can move from where weather and geography favour generation to where consumers, industry, and large new loads require it. Storage can shift some output through time, while transmission and interconnectors move it geographically.
Scotland’s 20.8TWh of net exports and Northern Ireland’s 578GWh of net imports sit at opposite ends of that regional picture. Neither is inherently a problem: both are consequences of an interconnected system. The engineering requirement is to ensure that transmission, interconnection, generation, and flexibility develop together rather than leaving regional surpluses or deficits constrained by the network between them.
