Planning lodged for major €450m Wexford-Wales interconnector
250 JOBS WOULD BE CREATED DURING THE CONSTRUCTION PERIOD OF THE PRIVATELY-FUNDED ELECTRICITY LINK PROJECT
AN Bord Pleanala is considering a strategic infrastructure application for a major €450 million electricity interconnector between Ireland and the UK with 190 km of high voltage cables stretching underground and beneath the sea from Great Island in Campile to Pembrokeshire in Wales.
The applicaton which was lodged by Greenlink Interconnector Ltd along with a planning fee of €100,000, will see the building of electricity converter stations at Great Island and the laying of cables through a wide area of south Wexford including Kilmannock, Dunbrody, Saltmills, Grange, Kilhile, Rosetown, Coleman, Ramsgrange, Kilbride, Ballinruan, Aldridge, Booley, Broomhill, Lewistown, Kilcloggan, Templetown, Graigue Little, Graigue Great, Lambstown and Ramstown.
The interconnector will link electricity grids in Ireland and the UK, with a nominal capacity of 500 megawatts, equivalent to powering 380,000 homes.
It will create an electricity connection between Ireland and Wales, allowing power to flow in either direction depending on supply and demand, with onward connections to Europe.
Approximately 250 jobs will be created during the construction period and pending planning approval, Greenlink’s intention is to start work later this year and have the project built by the end of 2023, according to Greenlink CEO Nigel Beresford.
The Greenlink Interconnector on which work has been ongoing for about five years, is designated as a European Union Project of Common Interest under the Trans-European Network for Energy (TEN-E) Regulation.
It is the first privately funded interconnector in Europe and will connect EirGrid’s Great Island 220kV substation and the
UK National Grid’s Pembroke transmission substation, with separate applications required on both sides of the Irish sea.
Planning permission has been sought from An Bord Pleanála for a new converter station, tail station and MV substation at Great Island, 23km of high voltage direct current (HVDC) electricity cables, 420m of high voltage alternating current (HVAC) cables, 23.42km of fibre optic cable, 54 car parking spaces on the access road to Baginbun Beach and the provision of footpaths and street lighting in Ramsgrange village as community benefit projects along with various temporary construction, cable and drilling compounds, on an overall proposed development site of more than 200 acres.
The proposed development will include a temporary landfall compound at Baginbun in the townland of Ramstown, where the high voltage cable will be installed underground, from below the beach and cliff at Baginbun to the converter station at Great Island, approximately 23 kilometres in length.
The converter station at Great Island will have a double perimter fence consisting of a 2.4 m security fence and a 3.4 m high electrified security fence.
A 220kV tail station of 11 metres in height with a 2.6 m high perimeter fence, will be located beside the converter station and there will also be an MV substation building outside these fences but within the overall site..
The UK Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has been notified of the application and of the possibility that the proposed devolopment is likely to have significant effects on the environment of Wales.
The Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) which accompanies the An Bord Pleanála application includes a Joint Environmental Report in respect of the entire area affected by the Greenlink Interconnector.
All the information including a Natural Impact Statement is available to view on the dedicated website www. greenlinkplanning.ie.
Submissions or observations on the proposed development may be made in writing to An Bord Pleanála at 64 Marlborough Street, Dublin 1 up to 5.30 p.m. on February 12, 2021.
Any enquiries relating to the application process should be directed to the Strategic Infrastructure Section of An Bord Pleanála, telephone 01 8588100 or sids@pleanala.ie.
An Environmental Report submitted with the application concludes that static magnetic fields generated by the cables will be well below standard health limits and will not interfere with potentially susceptible devices such as cardiac pacemakers, implanted defibrillators, cochlear impants and similar devices. The burial depth of the cables will be mostly one metre with the shallowest at 0.9 metres.
The report also states that the converter station and surrounding equipment is designed to ensure that negligible electromagnetic fields would be produced outside the boundary fence.
It points out that the Ireland to Wales East West Interconnector (EWIC) was a similar development to Greenlink with an oral hearing taking place in March 2009.
An Bord Pleanála approved that development and in making its decision noted that it would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or of property in the vicinity or be prejudicial to public health or safety.
Greenlink Interconnector Limited with an address at Barrow Street, Dublin is owned jointly by Element Power Holdings, part of Hudson Sustainable Investment and Partners Group on behalf of its clients.
Hudson Sustainable Investment is a New York-based independent investment management firm with expertise in investing in sustainable energy infrastructure projects in Ireland, the UK and internationally.
Partners Group, based in Switzerland, is a global investment management firm with
IT WILL BRING IMPROVED ENERGY SECURITY, REGIONAL INVESTMENT AND COMPETITIVE ENERGY COSTS FOR CONSUMERS – GREENLINK CEO NIGEL BERESFORD
€73 billion in investment programmes under management in private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure and private debt.
The listed directors of Greenlink are Padraig McManus, Robert Warshauer, Simon Merriweather, Thomas Murley and Shreya Malik with Michael Daly of Ove Arup and partners in Cork acting as agent.
The sites for the converter station and tail station will be permanently acquired for the purposes of the proposed development and various landowners have given their consent to the lodging of the planning application.
Wayleave agreements over land have been made with the relevant landowners, allowing the proposed development to be constructed.
There will be no permanent loss of agricultural land and any land disturbed during the project will be fully restored.
Greenlink can exercise statutory powers under the Electricity (Supply) Act of 1927 to lay cables across or under any land, including a road. Much of the cable will be installed along the local road network.
Greenlink began pre-application consultations with An Bord Pleanála in November of 2016 and during a series of five meetings, it was stressed that consideration should be given to protected views from any archaeological sites, the mitigation of any disruption to local amenity areas, works in proximity to protected structures and possible community gain arising from the development.
Wexford County Council officials are required to issue a report to An Bord Pleanála within 10 weeks of the application being made and elected members of Wexford County Council may add recommendations to the officials’ report.
It is open to Bord Pleanála to hold an oral hearing and it may hold a meeting with Greenlink or any other relevant person and may request further information from Greenlink, including a revised EIAR.
An Bord Pleanála must make its determination of the application ‘as expeditiously as is consistent with proper planning and sustainable development’. It has an objective, but not an obligation, to make a determination within 18 weeks of the latest date for the receipt of submissions from the public.
Projects of Common Interest (PCI) are cross border infrastructure developments that link the energy systems of European Union (EU) Member Statesx and are intended to help the EU achieve its energy policy and climate objectives - affordable, secure and sustainable energy for all citizens, and the long-term decarbonisation of the economy in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
Public consultation on the proposed development began in the summer 2018 with exhibitions taking place at Fethard on Sea and Duncannon and the project team seeking imput from the community to improve the design and delivery of the interconnector.
Further public consultation took place in 2019 in Fethard on Sea, Duncannon and Ramsgrange with a third round of updates in December of that year.
Various heritage, wildlife, fisheries and environmental agencies were consulted in relation to the the choice of route and landfall site.