DETAILED plans, including pictures visualising how 50-metre-high pylons could alter the landscape of Essex’s countryside, have been published as part of plans to build a new transmission route between Norwich and Tilbury reports the Local Democracy Reporter.
National Grid’s plans to build 183 kilometres of pylons through Essex have been met with considerable opposition from councils and opposition groups along the route.
The project is aiming to reinforce the transmission network between the existing Norwich Main Substation in Norfolk and the Tilbury Substation in Essex, via its Bramford Substation, the new East Anglia Connection Node (EACN) Substation, and the new Tilbury North Substation.
National Grid states that the pylons are necessary because the existing transmission network, even with current upgrades, will not have sufficient capacity to accommodate new renewable energy, a substantial proportion of which is expected to be generated by offshore wind over the next decade and beyond.
If the application receives development consent, construction is expected to start in 2027 and is anticipated to take approximately four years.
Part of the planned route of the Tilbury to Norwich pylon development is planned to cut along the edge of the Dunton Hill garden village near West Horndon.
Elsewhere in Essex, people in Chelmsford worry the pylons could threaten an ancient settlement near Little and Great Waltham. It’s thought the settlement could be as old as Stonehenge, but the pylons could carve through it as it does not have a protected status.
National Grid here have shown before and after pictures of a view from Broad’s Green.
Essex County Council has said National Grid’s current plans for the Norwich to Tilbury pylon project remain “wide of the mark of what is acceptable” to the people of Essex and fail to consider the long-term impact it would have on Essex, with very little offered by way of social value and community benefits.
East Anglia’s 400 kV electricity transmission network was built in the 1960s. It was built to supply regional demand, centred on Norwich and Ipswich. For many years, the only significant power stations generating electricity in the East Anglia region were the Sizewell A and Sizewell B nuclear power stations, as well as the Spalding North and Sutton Bridge gas-fired power stations, and several smaller 132 kV connected gas-fired power stations.
The need for capacity is expected to grow substantially in the coming years, with new offshore and nuclear generation. In the East Anglia region, connection agreements have been signed for approximately 27 gigawatts of new generation capacity.
A statement from National Grid said: “Without reinforcement, the capacity of the East Anglia and South East existing network is insufficient to accommodate the connection of the proposed new power sources. The ‘Thermal Boundary Export Limit’ – the physical maximum energy capacity the system can accommodate during planned system faults – would be exceeded, preventing export of power to demand centres beyond East Anglia.
“In these circumstances, generators connecting in the area would be required to reduce their output and would be compensated via a ‘constraint’ payment. These costs would be passed on to end consumers.”
