The local community is invited to find out more about National Grid’s plans and provide their feedback:
In a significant milestone in the step towards decarbonising the energy system, representatives from National Grid and SSEN Transmission took the first ceremonial spadefuls of earth, marking the start of main construction, at events held at either end of the subsea link in Peterhead in Scotland and Wren Hall in Drax, near Selby in North Yorkshire.
The equipment – large transformer-shaped devices called shunt reactors – help regulate the complex movement of energy in an alternating current (AC), a movement which is influenced by ‘reactive power’.
Reactive power can be added into the grid by switching in shunt reactors to keep voltage levels stable, giving the NESO’s control room extra tools at its disposal to manage the electricity system securely.
The security threat landscape
In an increasingly digital world, cyber threats continue to emerge and evolve. Five trends in this evolving security threat landscape include1:
1. Evolving risks to critical infrastructure
2. Ransomware
3. Supply chain exploitation
Folly Road leading up to Roundway Hill has been fully reopened for cars, pedestrians and cyclists, following a temporary closure to allow our project team to safely excavate the trenches and install the ducting which will house the new underground cables.
The road has been fully reinstated following the completion of this activity and is now open to the public with traffic management measures removed.
All other public rights of way and permissive paths in the area including routes up to Roundway Hill have remained open throughout the work.
Since 2021, three rounds of public consultation have taken place to help shape the proposals, which will see around 27 km of existing overhead line removed and replaced with a mixture of new overhead line and underground cables in the Dedham Vale National Landscape and parts of the Stour Valley. The plans also include supporting construction, maintenance and operational infrastructure, such as haul roads for construction traffic and cable sealing end compounds.
The six electricity distribution pylons that carried the lines have also been replaced by three cable sealing end (CSE) pylons – the type of pylon required to join the existing overhead lines into the newly installed cables. With reinstatement works currently underway, these works have left the landscape at Crooks Marsh unrecognisable from its status as a former landfill site.
A challenging terrain
National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) has been awarded £8,500,724 for a project that will help develop a net zero electricity network by creating a long-term strategy to remove electrical insulating gas SF6 from the network.
National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) has been awarded £6,856,750 for two projects supporting local decision-making on regional energy planning for net zero on a single digital platform and addressing the potential load imbalance across phases in the distribution network as more customers opt for low carbon technologies.
These are temporary transmission pylons which are key to making sure there is no disruption to the power network while construction is underway for the North Wessex Downs project.
Work is taking place to transfer the overhead lines from either side of our existing pylons to the new temporary one-armed pylons.
Moving the overhead lines allows space for the team to safely work on the new cable sealing end compounds (CSECs) that are required at either end of the underground cable.
What do we use our drones for?
Drones – also known as unmanned aerial systems or vehicles (UAS / UAVs) – allow us to look at parts of our network that are more difficult or costly to reach.
They make it much easier for us to inspect the overhead wires and pylons known as the national grid, which transmit electricity from power stations across the country.