National Grid will be launching a major public consultation, next month (October), about proposals to reinforce the high voltage electricity network in south Suffolk and part of Essex.
Britain’s largest utility has been asked to connect a number of new generators to the system in East Anglia. In addition, significant potential wind farm development has been identified off the East Anglian coast.
With the existing high-voltage network in East Anglia now running at full capacity, National Grid needs to build a new 400,000 volt (400kV) overhead transmission line between Bramford electricity substation, north west of Ipswich, to Twinstead, south of Sudbury.
National Grid major projects manager David Mercer said: “This line will play a key role in helping to maintain reliable electricity supplies in East Anglia and Britain as a whole.
“With a number of major power stations due to close over the next decade and no let up in electricity demand, the country will need more than 20 gigawatts of new generation – equivalent to replacing almost one third of the country’s power stations – by 2020. The proposed new generation in East Anglia will play an important role in plugging the gigawatt gap.
“We recognise that the proposed overhead line is a major development and we are committed to full public consultation. Following initial environmental studies, a number of potential locations for an overhead line have been identified. Local people will, quite rightly, have queries, concerns and opinions they will want to raise with us and so in October we will be rolling out a major public consultation programme across the area.”
The consultation programme will include public exhibitions, internet consultation and a free-phone helpline. Full details of the programme will be given later this month after the county and district councils have commented on National Grid’s ‘Statement of Community Consultation’, a plan that outlines how National Grid will seek people’s views.
Four potential ‘route corridors’ – stretches of land in which an overhead line could be located – are being looked at:
Option 1: build a new overhead line running south west from Bramford, which would largely run parallel to an existing 400,000 volt National Grid line and a 132,000 volt line, owned by EDF Networks
Option 2: take down the existing 132,000 volt EDF line and build the new 400,000 volt in its place
Option 3: route the new line north of Hadleigh and Boxford, heading south west towards Twinstead
Option 4: route the new line in a north western arc, heading north of Elmsett and Lindsey Tye and Edwardstone before heading south towards Twinstead
Depending on which route the line takes, it could range from 26kms (16 miles) on the shortest route to 30kms (18 miles) on the longest route. The pylons would be a standard design and height for this type of line – approximately 46.5 metres tall – however, this may vary at different points on the line depending on the local landscape.
For further information and to view the potential route corridors log on to: www.nationalgrid.com/bramford-twinstead.
Members of the public will be able to feed back their views on the website and through a freephone helpline when the public consultation period opens in October.
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For further media information only, please contact Sara Wilcox, National Grid Media Relations, on 01926 655271 or 07899 983792.