Tata reaches Port Talbot deal with ESO despite union opposition

Plan to use electricity grid to power new furnaces will dramatically cut emissions, but 2,800 steelworkers will lose their jobs

Tata Steel has reached a deal with the UK’s electricity grid to start supplying the energy for new furnaces in south Wales from 2027, as the company moves ahead with its plan despite union opposition.

The agreement with the National Grid’s electricity supply operator (ESO), the company which controls how energy is moved around Great Britain, will provide hundreds of millions of megawatts of power to a new electric arc furnace at the steelworks in Port Talbot.