A South Essex council has objected to a massive overhead pylons route planned as part of a huge National Grid (NG) project to run power cables through the county. National Grid is proposing to build approximately 184km of new electricity cables from Norwich to Tilbury, for which it held a consultation from April 10 to July 26.
Basildon Council bosses have “argued strongly” for the power lines to be dug into the ground, with Gavin Callaghan, Labour leader of Basildon Council insisting the calls are to protect greenbelt land and green space.
Speaking in his latest weekly Facebook live video, he said: “One of the other issues that we are confronting at the moment, some of you may know about it, some of you might not, is the issue of the pylons. There is a proposal in place to run a major UK power network with pylons from Norwich, in East Anglia, all the way through to Tilbury, around the Freeport in Tilbury.
Protecting green spaces
“So that’s a huge scheme, in order to increase the energy on the grid and be able to power things like more electric vehicles, to be able to power more homes all that kind of stuff, we are told we need and need to be thinking about in terms of the future, being able to reduce our energy bills.
“But these pylons and this scheme is causing some problems, and what I have said, and what Basildon Council has said, is that instead of having pylons in fields around West Horndon, and on the west of the borough around Billericay, coming down towards Tilbury, that that area should be dug and the pylons should go under the ground and the electricity wires should go underground rather than be on pylons.
“So, we’ve had to submit a consultation response to the Government about that, that’s what we’ve argued for really strongly, that we want this to be underground so we are not ruining any of the green space in and around the west of our borough, and that we are looking after the greenbelt, and those green spaces as well.”
National Grid says on its website: “Norwich to Tilbury will play a vital role in delivering electricity efficiently, reliably, and safely and will support the UK’s move to reduce carbon emissions. Norwich to Tilbury is a proposal by National Grid Electricity Transmission (National Grid) to reinforce the high voltage power network in East Anglia between the existing substations at Norwich Main in Norfolk, Bramford in Suffolk, and Tilbury in Essex, as well as connect new offshore wind generation.
National Grid’s proposal
“We are proposing to build approximately 184 km of new electricity transmission reinforcement between Norwich and Tilbury. This will be made up mostly of overhead line and pylons, along with some underground cables and a new 400 kV substation. Our proposals are part of The Great Grid Upgrade – the largest overhaul of the grid in generations.”
As East Anglia Bylines has reported over a number of articles, this electricity is not for East Anglia. It is to bolster the provision to London and the south east. The pylon route is universally opposed by every MP whose constituency is affected, and every council from county to parish level, on the basis that NG had not, at any point, looked in detail at other options. As James Cartlidge, MP for South Suffolk discovered, NG’s refusal to even consider alternatives to pylons is not based on any detailed, objective assessment of alternatives.
One alternative would be an offshore option which would see the cabling remaining offshore from the wind-farms, travelling around the East Anglia coast and up the Thames to its destination at the Tilbury substation. Another would be to bury the cabling as is standard in countries such as Germany. Earlier this year the electricity system operator (ESO), in an effort at transparency, conducted a review of alternative options in the East Anglia Network Study, and reported back in March.
Call for a national review
ESO found that the offshore option would be more expensive, even though it will be used elsewhere in the UK. But, as Cartlidge reports on his website, “ESO found that undergrounded HVDC (U-DC) is cost comparable to pylons, assuming a 2034 baseline – indeed, potentially cheaper, given the greater efficiency of this option and therefore the significantly lower ‘constraint payments’ involved. I would stress that these findings were re-tested repeatedly by ESO’s senior engineers and found to be fully justified.
“ESO also found the underground HVDC proposal to be technically feasible in the timescales that the capacity is needed. It is clear to me that U-DC will be far more welcome in rural communities. Given its cost competitiveness, I would urge NG and the Government to continue the last Government’s pledge to urgently review the pylon presumption, since it may be that with a national approach to U-DC like Germany, we could both save money for bill-payers and deliver infrastructure more quickly, through far less local opposition.”
He ends by saying, “Those who oppose pylons are constantly portrayed as ‘NIMBYs’ – and yet, this dismissive position rests on an assumption of cost competitiveness that now goes against the most recent detailed findings. There is NO data to show the cost competitiveness of a national U-DC approach, which is why the last Government wanted to urgently review its presumptions. I urge NG and the Government to work swiftly to determine if a U-DC circuit for Norwich-Tilbury might not only be cheaper over its lifetime, but act as a model for a wider UK commitment that would be:
- Fairer to affected rural communities, with far lower long-term impact on the countryside
- Cost effective for bill payers
- Faster to deliver, due to less political and legal opposition
Future of the proposals
“If the answer to all of the above is to ‘continue with pylons regardless’, I would be grateful to finally receive a detailed explanation as to why billions can be spent mitigating harm to the countryside in the north and Scotland, but not in East Anglia.”
National Grid is now reviewing the feedback received during their consultation to help it to further refine its proposals ahead of submitting our application for a development consent order to the Planning Inspectorate in 2025. The people have spoken – it remains to be seen whether NG will listen.
Adapted from an article by Local Democracy Reporter Matthew Critchell.
