In a press release on March 18th National Grid announced:

National Grid plc today announces that it has agreed to acquire PPL WPD Investments Limited, the holding company of Western Power Distribution (WPD), the UK’s largest electricity distribution business, from PPL WPD Limited, a subsidiary of PPL Corporation for an equity value of £7.8 billion and National Grid has agreed to sell The Narragansett Electric Company (NECO) to PPL Energy Holdings, LLC, also a subsidiary of PPL, for an equity value of US$3.8 billion (£2.7 billion).

In addition, National Grid announces that it will commence a process later this year for the sale of a majority stake in National Grid Gas plc, the owner of the national gas transmission system.

As is the way with such things, this is not all signed, sealed and delivered just yet:

Completion of the WPD Acquisition, which will be funded by fully committed bridge facilities, is expected to occur within the next four months and completion of the NECO Sale is expected to occur before the end of the first quarter of 2022. National Grid expects to launch the sale process for NGG in the second half of this year and complete the sale approximately a year later.

The Chief Executive of National Grid, John Pettigrew , commented that: