Powering Brent Cross Town: A Long-Term Utility Infrastructure Programme

We’re proud to be playing a central role in Brent Cross Town – a £8 billion transformation project in North London. The site will deliver 6,700 homes, workspace for 25,000 people, a new high street, schools, community facilities, and 50 acres of green and sporting space.

Our work began in 2019, and we’ve been delivering multi-utility infrastructure to support the evolving site ever since. Utilities are being energised in carefully phased stages, with networks designed to meet both current and future needs – aligned to the development’s target to be net zero carbon by 2030.

Delivering Essential Utility Infrastructure

The latest energised plots include:

1. Plot 14 – A residential block of three buildings providing 286 homes, ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments, plus three maisonettes on the ground floor.
2. Plot 25 – Purpose-built student accommodation providing around 660 private rooms, with shared study and recreation areas, and a ground-floor commercial unit.

These energisations follow earlier connections to Plot 12, which welcomed its first residents in early 2025, and three further residential blocks (Plots 13, 202 and 203), together comprising 648 apartments and nine retail units.

Plot 1, a 13-storey mixed-use space designed for office or educational use and part-owned by Sheffield Hallam University, has also been energised. It includes flexible retail space, long-stay cycle parking, lockers, and showers to support sustainable travel.

Phased Energy Network Development

The electricity network includes a newly installed primary substation with space for four transformers – two of which are already in place. An extension to the substation is planned to support a second high voltage network, involving six kilometres of offsite cabling. To ensure long-term reliability and continuity of service, all infrastructure will be adopted by our parent company, BUUK, upon completion.

Water connections are designed for resilience, with two links to Thames Water’s network providing a built-in contingency. If one connection fails for any reason, the residents will still have drinking water and be able to flush their toilets. The potable water and wastewater systems are being developed in collaboration with our specialist utility partners and sister companies, IWNL and GTC, to ensure compliance and continuity of supply as the development evolves.

Early engagement and Future Proofing

Our Senior Design Engineer, Michael Boulter, says:

“With such a huge ongoing development, the phased approach is a complex matter in itself. We are managing each phase and the capacity within that phase, but also always looking at the bigger picture to ensure that we can provide flexibility and certainty to the developer that we have designed to meet current and future requirements for the development. As the main infrastructure and highways need to be installed prior to the plot connections, we are reducing the overall exposure to the master developer. Power On is responsible for designing high-quality networks for electricity, potable water and gas, with gas being removed from future development to help meet the master developer’s net-zero by 2030 targets, and early engagement helps to solve possible issues.”

Collaborative approach:

We’re involved with the master developer and each plot developer throughout the process. From tendering to design, construction to adoption, we provide a single point of contact.

Our Senior Project Manager, Alex Bridge, says:

“We have to ensure the master developer and plot developer loads work with enough capacity for all. With such a long project, buildings can grow, with greater power needs. Changes in how the buildings are heated and cooled will impact the power needs too, and we need to consider things like new technologies, and, for example, how electric vehicle usage is likely to change over time.”

We’re Here to Help

Whether you’re planning a major new development or need a trusted partner for complex utility connections, we’re here to make the process easier.

From early engagement and design through to delivery and adoption, our teams work closely with developers to deliver future-ready infrastructure – on time and on budget.

Get in touch to speak to our team or explore our services to learn more about how we can help.