Power lines may go underground to avoid repeat of storm damage

POWER lines could be buried underground to protect them from bad weather under plans being considered in the wake of Storm Arwen.

A government review will look at ways to make the energy system more resilient after thousands of people in Scotland and the North of England were left without power for more than a week in the aftermath of the storm.

Ongoing National Grid projects are burying cables in national parks and other areas of natural beauty to remove the visual impact of pylons.

Putting local lower-voltage cables underground can cost more than £150,000 per kilometre, with highvoltage pylon lines costing even more.

The measure will be considered as part of the review, set to report its findings in March next year. Tom Fyans, director of campaigns and policy at CPRE, the countryside charity, said: “Electricity pylons are one of the original blots on the landscape and surveys repeatedly show the public is prepared to pay a little more on their energy bills to remove them from treasured landscapes, such as national parks.

“Measures such as undergrounding power cables instead are a win-win, in terms of improving the view and reducing the risk of disruption to supply due to storms and extreme weather.”

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “Our review will consider putting more electricity cables underground. This is so that we can ensure our system, which has had £60billion of investment by gas and electricity networks in the last eight years, is as resilient as possible.”

Dave Openshaw, a director at energy consultancy Millhouse Power, said that other measures, including insulated lines and managing trees, were more cost-effective. Storm disruption is usually caused by trees falling on lines, rather than the lines themselves being damaged by winds, he said, adding: “The preferable option would be to divert the line clear of the trees if you can’t clear the trees themselves.”

Randolph Brazier, director of innovation and electricity systems at industry group Energy Networks Association, said: “There’s a balance that needs to be maintained when it comes to putting cables underground, which depends on how we keep costs down for bill payers and the impact on the land itself.”

‘The public is prepared to pay a little more on their bills to remove pylons from treasured landscapes’