The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
£3.4bn funding for Peterhead power cable to Yorkshire
Aproject which will transfer clean Scottish electricity to England to power around two million homes has been given the go-ahead from Ofgem for a £3.4 billion funding package.
The high voltage power cable – billed as an “electricity superhighway” – will connect Peterhead to Drax in North Yorkshire when completed in 2029.
It is part of the efforts to connect the towns and cities south of the border which need electricity generated by wind farms in the north and north-east.
At present, congestion on the grid means that wind farms that could be producing energy have to shut down because there is not enough capacity to carry their power to places where it could be used.
Wind farms are paid when asked to shut down due to such congestion.
So far in March, payments to wind farms
that have been asked to shut down have totalled nearly £50 million, according to the UK Wind Curtailment Monitor.
It is claimed that the new 500-kilometre cable will help reduce the time that wind farms have to shut down even when they can produce.
This new project has been met by stern opposition from Scotland Against Spin, a group who campaign for the reform of the Scottish Government’s wind energy policy.
Graham Lang of Scotland Against Spin said: “The Scottish Government is promoting both on and offshore wind power to an unreasonable extent.
“Analysis reveals that capacity will rise to six times the nation’s consumption once all the wind farms which have planning permission are operational and, if all those seeking permission go ahead, it will rise to ten times consumption.
“The sensible thing to do is locate generation closer to centres of demand such as south-east England.
“Installing yet more wind farms and infrastructure to transmit energy from Scotland is environmentally destructive and conducive to higher bills.”
Ofgem director of major projects, Rebecca Barnett, has said that consumers won’t be hit with rising bills due to new projects.
Ms Barnett said the framework Ofgem uses “helps ensure consumers are protected from unnecessary costs and we make budget adjustments where we don’t see maximum efficiency and benefit for consumers.
“To ensure we meet future energy demand and achieve Government net zero targets we must speed up the expansion of the high voltage electricity network which connects consumers to homegrown energy.”
It is the second such project to win approval from Ofgem under a new fast-track programme designed to help the UK connect all the wind farms it plans to build over the years to come.
It follows agreement for a £2bn cable between East Lothian and County Durham, which was granted earlier this month.
The two gigawatt cable approved yesterday will run mainly on the bottom of the North Sea, but around 70 kilometres of it will be buried underground.