To achieve its target of net zero emissions by 2050, the UK needs to decarbonise industry. Nearly half of carbon emissions from UK industrial clusters come from Britain’s historic engine room: the Humber and Teesside.
The removal of the Weston Power Distribution pylons follows feedback from members of the community during consultation carried out between 2009 and 2014. It’s part of the 67 km of overhead line that will be removed by 2025, to make room for and reduce the visual impact of new T-pylons National Grid are building between Sandford and Avonmouth, which will run to the west of the town.
We’re in direct contact with every household that has a pylon in its garden, or where the wires go over the properties.
One of the first tasks for our principal contractor Balfour Beatty is to build new temporary road accesses into our construction areas. In the areas where these are complete, we’re building the connecting construction haul road and preparing the work areas where we will be erecting each of the new T-pylons.
National Grid Metering’s community group have been working alongside the University Hospitals group in Birmingham over the past two years on a variety of activities.
Their latest venture was to assist the charity with preparing Premature baby packs for their Neo-natal Units at Good Hope and Heartlands hospitals.
Each year the hospitals distribute 1,000 packs to the families at a cost of £7 per pack.
The cable pull is over half way there and progressing well. “We’re delighted with progress and are really making the most of the better weather during the summer months, when the ground conditions are most favourable,” says Project Engineer, Robbie Griggs.
“There is a real buzz and momentum on the project – we’ve got the jointers and other teams on site now, running at around 15,000 man hours per month – and are well over 50% there in terms of the cable pull, having pulled 63,795m since we started in February.”
In this Green Collar Jobs story, we talk to Joseph Harvey, a Trainee Substation Engineer in the UK's Borders team, which covers the region from Carlisle to Newcastle. As well as combining his ‘day job’ and degree level studies, Joseph is also representing National Grid on EY’s Future Leaders Board for their Climate Business Forum – a group of young professionals addressing long-term approaches to ‘prosperous decarbonisation’.
The events on the beach and in Weston woods were organised as part the global Plastic Free July movement, which National Grid encourages all its employees to support.
Last year the Hinkley Connection team implemented a ban on single-use plastic water bottles at the project office. This year they wanted to support Plastic Free July and the local area at the same time. In total volunteers filled 15 bin bags with rubbish on the two evenings.
The tunnel boring project at London’s Olympic Park started back in 2005, seven years before the London 2012 Olympics were due to commence. Here are some facts and figures about this gold-medal worthy project:
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Each of the tunnels measures 6km in length, running beneath Stratford in East London
This novel facility will bundle several renewable energy projects together to provide economies of scale and operational efficiencies. It was structured under National Grid’s Green Financing Framework, evidencing once again the company’s strong commitment to advance a cleaner energy system.
Woolavington Village Primary School, East Brent CofE Academy and East and West Huntspill Academy pupils were amongst the first to present their completed capsules to National Grid engineers last week, and learn about how the T-pylons will be constructed.