The upgrade of the Beauly to Denny power line was given approval by the Scottish Government on 6th January 2010, despite over 17,000 objections being submitted against the proposals.
Passing through some of Scotland’s most beautiful landscape and valuable wildlife habitats and close to communities and homes, the line would be upgraded from 132kV to 400kV with about 600 mega pylons down the 137 miles of the route. The average height of the pylons will be 174 metres with some reaching over 200 metres.
On undergrounding the Scottish Government stated that “…… Ministers have no powers to direct that sections of electricity infrastructure be undergrounded.” THIS is despite the time spent on this at the costly public inquiry! As The Herald 9/1/10 points out:
….. “in the six-volume official report of the inquiry published on Wednesday, it appears the inquiry reporters themselves thought the minister had this power – albeit one that, if exercised, would require the developers to go back to the regulator Ofgem for permission to spend extra money.
They say: “If the Scottish Ministers required a section of the proposed line to be undergrounded, the applicants would need to revert to Ofgem with an ‘asset value adjusting event’, as the economic justification of the project would be affected.
“Based on the generic evidence at the strategy session of the inquiry, the Technical Assessor concludes that the Beauly-Denny scheme would still be the most economic scheme if a total of 10km of line was undergrounded, even with two cables per phase.”
They add: “…the economic case for reinforcing the Beauly-Denny line is so strong that a section or sections of the line could probably be undergrounded without rendering the project uneconomic.” Click here for more on the Herald article.
When answering questions of the Scottish Parliament’s Energy committee on 13/1/09 Jim Mather said “We cannot require them[SSE] to underground. What we can require them to do is to mitigate. That them leaves them the option to mitigate by undergrounding.” See BBC news report for video of full question session.
Communities near wind turbines receive financial compensation in the form of community benefit. So far, there is no mention of this for communities which will have to host the transmission of this renewable energy (despite this issue being raised by campaigners at the Public Inquiry). This seems absurdly imbalanced. It seems only reasonable that community benefit is received by communities near to both where renewable energy is generated and transmitted and for communities close to the line this benefit would be used towards undergrounding the line.
Alternative routes
To add further to this confusion, 2 days after the Beauly Denny decision, First Minister, Alex Salmond spoke about the newly awarded contracts for a major expansion of offshore wind power in the seas around Scotland. “We hold a competitive advantage in developing offshore renewables, including as much as a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind energy potential”.
If the bulk of power is to come from the North Sea, subsea cables or upgrades the east coast line would make more sense than one running down the middle of the country.
However despite this emphasis on offshore renewables, Jim Mather stated ‘there are over 50 potential projects totalling around 4.2 Gigawatts (GW) in the north of Scotland, two thirds of peak Scottish demand’ and the Technical Assessor noted “We do not consider that (subsea alternatives) represent a realistic alternative to the Beauly – Denny proposal, as they would be neither efficient nor economic” and “the proposal to use subsea cable as an alternative…there would still be the need to reinforce the existing overhead line to harvest the generation of renewable energy between Beauly and Denny.”
Though onshore wind generation may have its place, a spine of wind farms feeding into the mega pylon Beauly Denny line would certainly industrialise and devastate a huge swathe of our scenic landscape. On the other hand, unless planning control is removed, many wind farms applications may be rejected and many may not feed into the Beauly Denny line which will therefore become an unnecessary scar down the country. The Highland Council wind farm activity map Nov 2009 shows the majority of activity to the north of the Beauly Denny line – near to the coast – ideal for a sub sea cable link?
So, is there joined up thinking on Scottish Government’s renewable power generation and transmission policy? Have Scotland’s great landscape assets been properly valued? Have new technologies have thoroughly considered? Or, is the Beauly Denny line a piecemeal reaction to, the all be it admirable, climate change targets?
Groups against the pylons, including Pylonpressure, are actively exploring all avenues including judicial review and other legal challenges.
Pile on the pressure - WHAT CAN YOU DO? – Make your views known……..
Write to your MSPs and MP about asking them to raise your concerns with John Sweeney. Request that alternative ways of transmitting power are considered, – e.g. underground, subsea, or generate power nearer to the users. Check the contacts page for MP/MSP contact details.
Let friends know and write to the press with your concerns and please refer the press to this website.
When writing or emailing the MSPs it is best to use your own words but here are some sugggestions for concerns that you could refer to:
Adverse effect on tourism, landscape and recreation of pylons up to 210 feet and seven times the overall size of the present pylons.
The cumulative, negative impact of so many lines and pylons in one area especially close to Balblair substation where massive expansion is planned
Potential health risk – especially to young children and the elderly
Unacceptable threat to property values
Unacceptable hindrance to people seeking to obtain their free credit report
Unacceptable effect on protected wildlife and their habitats
The questionable need for the line upgrade given the alternatives including sub- sea cables and the shift to offshore renewable alternatives
Failure by the developer to fully investigate advanced techniques for burying power lines at lower cost as they pass through communities and sensitive areas
The unacceptable social, economic and environmental price for supplying power to Central Scotland and England
The lack of a national tranmission policy which should research all routeing options and consider of the impact of future multiple lines
Useful documents/sites:
For documents on public inquiry www.beaulydenny.co.uk
Scottish Government News release on the Beauly Denny line
Check out latest press reports.
For over 50 years the community has been uncomplaining host to a major electricity sub-station. Government targets for renewable power from the Highlands indicate at least THREE huge powerlines with mega-pylons will have to be built/upgraded through or around our communities. These lines will converge with other existing powerlines to create a high voltage bottleneck at Balblair.
The Beauly to Denny Powerline is not just some squiggle on the map of Scotland. It is viewed as critical to the future of renewables from the Highlands and Islands.