Renew On Line (UK) 46

Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 146 Nov-Dec 2003

4. Rewiring the UK

The Transmission Issues Working Group (TIWG) final Report emerged recently, and includes some estimates on how much it will cost to strengthen the grid system so that it can cope with the inputs from renewable projects, especially offshore wind projects.

The TIWG was set up by the DTI to initiate initial studies into the work required to upgrade the transmission system to accept increasing amounts of renewable generation by 2010. The Renewable Energy Transmission (RET) study looked at the extra costs of linking up to renewables in Scotland- first 2GW, then 4GW and finally 6GW. An  England & Wales Transmission study (EWT) looked at the extra cost of linking in 6GW of renewables in England and Wales, and in particular, offshore wind projects in the three strategic areas chosen by the DTI- the Wash, the Thames estuary and the NW.

The headline figure is £805m - £520m for 2GW in Scotland, £205m for 0.7GW in the NW and £80m in  total  for 3GW in the Wash and 1GW in the Thames estuary.  But it could be more if links had to be made to offshore windfarms further north than Heysham- bringing the total to perhaps £1,125m. It would get even larger of the full 6GW of Scottish renewables was linked in.  The higher cost of the Scottish links was presumably because of the lack of existing grid network in remote areas and the need to link to the English grid in the south. A 1GW link to the Western Isles has already been discussed- at a cost of £250m. The TIWG study suggested that the earlier proposal for an undersea High Voltage DC link from Scotland to Wales be taken seriously- but of course that’s even more expensive.   As we noted in Renew 140, a cable running 200 km, for example between Chapel Cross and Wylfa, would cost £790m.

Who should pay? TIWG doesn’t say. The government clearly is not keen, but, dare we say, the energy retail companies have been doing very well under NETA, so maybe they should cough up. Rather than perhaps being hit by another windfall tax.

 The report is at: www.dti.gov.uk/energy/renewables/technologies/transmission.shtml

No Transmision Charge

The Department of Trade & Industry has decided not to  accept a proposal to link the price paid for transmitting electricity across the high-voltage network to the distance between user and generator. Long distance transmission involves significant energy losses (up to 10%) in the form of heat,  so you would think that charging more for it would be a way to stimulate the development of locally embedded generation.  But it also means that extra cost would be incurred shifting power from wind and other renewable projects in remote areas like the north of Scotland to meet loads in the south.  Under a proposed modification of the electricity code (designated P82), instead of being charged a flat rate to transport electricity across the network, generators would have been charged on a ‘cost reflective’ basis. The energy regulator Ofgem  evidently supported the change, which it seems had been planned for implementation before the introduction of BETTA, the GB-wide electricity trading system. According to EARTHED (July) it was disappointed over the DTI’s decision, pointing out that 5 billion kWh of electricity is lost on the transmission system annually, the equivalent to more than 500,000t of carbon emissions, and referring to the Social and Environmental Guidance it received in November 2002, which said it should ‘have regard to the desirability of reducing those losses’.