The U.K.'s energy regulator has authorized nearly $2.5 billion of investment in it's transmission and distribution infrastructure. The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets early this month approved plans by National Grid, the monopoly gas-transmission operator, to spend more than $1.6 billion to expand and upgrade its pipeline network between 2007 and 2012. Four operators of the U.K.'s gas-distribution systems will be allowed to spend $1.9 billion in the period between May 2007 and March 2008. Britain's transmission network must be reconfigured to transport gas from new sources.