National grid has today announced that it will end the current undergrounding consultation earlier than expected and before the publication of the independent report by KEMA on the comparative costs of pylons vs. subsea and underground alternatives. In the announcement, National Grid have specifically chosen not to comment on how the consultation will now affect ongoing connection projects such as Hinkley C. Their email announcement follows verbatim:
Good Afternoon,
As you are aware, National Grid is currently consulting industry, government, non-governmental and environmental stakeholders as well as members of the public so that they can help shape how the company decides when to include underground sections within new transmission line proposals.
Previously, National Grid had planned to close this consultation after the publication of an independent report by the consultancy KEMA, which was to provide an authoritative reference point on the comparative costs of installing new high-voltage transmission power routes under the ground, sub-sea or as overhead lines.
However, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has recently announced that insufficient data has been provided to KEMA to enable them to complete this report. Arrangements are being put in place for further stages of the costs work to be taken forward. Another announcement will be made by the IET once the process and timescales for this next stage of work have been established. It is expected that a final analysis will be published later this year.
We would have liked to have had access to the final analysis of undergrounding costs before we further developed our new approach. However, we believe we now need to provide clarity of our approach to undergrounding to all involved in our major projects across England and Wales. Therefore we have decided to close the undergrounding consultation on Monday 4 July 2011, and expect to publish our revised approach to undergrounding later this summer.
We have received a significant amount of useful and valuable feedback on our consultation so far, for which we thank all those who have contributed. We will review all feedback received before the closing date and this will inform our revised approach to undergrounding.
When the IET study is available we will look very carefully at the final analysis of undergrounding costs and review our approach in light of any new findings.
Unfortunately we are not able to comment on how this announcement will affect the progress of current connection projects. If you would like information regarding these, please contact the appropriate community relations team, which can be found via the following link: http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/MajorProjects/
Thank you for your interest in National Grid’s undergrounding consultation. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the undergrounding consultation by e-mailing me at info@nationalgridundergrounding.com or by calling 0800 319 6175.
Yours sincerely,
Jessica Stewart
On behalf of National Grid’s Undergrounding Consultation.
