An enormous upgrade of the UK’s electricity system would include a number of pylons or cables that transport power from offshore windfarms around the UK.
To pull electricity from the ocean to the mainland, power lines would be constructed from Anglesey, Swansea to Grimsby, Hertfordshire to Loch Buidhe, Spittal to supply homes and businesses.
National Grid ESO stated that it was the largest network upgrade in 60-years.
However, critics have called PS54bn’s project “shortsighted and shameful”.
More than 11,000 wind turbines are located offshore and onshore, producing nearly 25% of the UK’s electricity.
National Grid ESO, the company that runs the electricity network, stated that the plan it had laid out would allow the government to deliver 50GW offshore wind power by 2030, a third of the UK’s electricity demand, while also creating 168,000 new jobs.
The network was expected to lead to investments of more than PS50bn over the next eight-years, according the company.
Although it did not specify if the new cabling would be above ground or below, the company acknowledged that the “nature of the infrastructure” means the design could have an impact.
To the dismay and anger of some, previously announced onshore power lines will be constructed to cover large areas of rural East Anglia.
Rosie Pearson, spokesperson for the group Essex Suffolk Norfolk Pylons said that the plans failed to address “abysmally the concerns of over 21,000 people who signed a petition asking to have this network off-shore”.
She said, “It’s shortsighted and shameful.” “East Anglia is being put under the bus, while substantial additional offshore networking over longer distances has been recommended to Scotland and North England.”
Most new offshore windfarms have their own connection to the grid. National Grid ESO stated that a holistic network design would make the network more connected.
It stated that this would lower the environmental impact and save consumers more than PS5bn by 2030.
Fintan Slye is the executive director of the company. He said that the plans were “a key step to providing certainty for offshore wind developers, and mitigating potential effects on the environment, and local communities, from energy infrastructure.”
According to the report, a number of new locations have been proposed for the west coast of Scotland or Lincolnshire. These proposals will “impact coastal communities”.
The BBC understood that National Grid ESO briefed MPs from the areas most likely to be affected earlier in the week.
These network upgrades will be essential in order to integrate and accommodate a new wave of renewable energy projects, which were also announced Thursday.
Bidders who wish to construct new renewable energy facilities were awarded contracts today for 23 gigawatts (GW), or 24 million homes.
Offshore wind prices were auctioned at 25% of current gas-generated power costs.
