Borders to get 90 miles of 'super' pylons

SPECIAL FEATURE: NEW THREAT TO LOCAL LANDSCAPES?

With a total price tag of up to £1.5 billion it promises to be the most expensive infrastructure project the Scottish Borders has ever hosted. Yet hardly a local soul seems aware of its existence despite the potential to blight many miles of unspoilt countryside and overshadow countless heritage sites. 

At this stage it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which localities might 'suffer'. But preferred routes have now been plotted for the intrusive 118 feet high pylons and associated overhead power lines needed to expand transmission of Scotland's burgeoning electricity output.

The details of and the reasoning for the forthcoming Borders project - the transmission towers will snake their way along two circuits, 34 miles from Harburn, West Calder to the Gala North substation before heading south for another 50 miles in the vicinity of the A7 road through Roxburghshire to Harker, in Cumberland - are laid out in Beyond 2030, a National Grid Energy Systems Operator (ESO) publication.

The preferred route - two others were rejected - is shown by the dotted lines on the map above. A similar new circuit of pylons and cables is planned across Dumfries and Galloway.

National Grid's document, covering every area of the country, declares in its executive summary: "New infrastructure of any kind can be challenging for communities during construction and once in use. However, we believe these challenges can be minimised by developers through optimisation of network designs, early engagement with communities, innovation, and appropriate community benefit packages.

"With little over a decade to 2035, progress must be swift and coordinated if we are to meet our Sixth Carbon Budget target. Further design optimisation will be required to ensure impacts on communities are minimised and wider benefits are seized upon." 

But those in charge of the daunting series of projects carrying a total value of £58 billion will doubtless be gearing up for resistance and opposition in some quarters. 

Action groups elsewhere are already functioning and fundraising to bankroll fees and legal costs for future campaigns against the pylons.

For example: the Angus Pylon Action Group in the north is already staging public meetings to voice concerns over Scottish & Southern Energy's 400Kv Kintore-Tealing overhead line project. How long before a similar group forms in the Borders?

According to Beyond 2030, the new circuit between South-east Scotland and North-west England (price range £500 million-£1 billion) which is known in the electricity generating trade as CMN3, is scheduled for 2033. Meanwhile the Harburn-Gala North line, costing between £100million-£500million, and labelled HGNC in the report is slated for 2036.

Apparently, CMN3 was identified as most suitable because two alternatives (CMNC and CMN2) would not have avoided the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks. Of course, the Borders -beautiful though its landscape is - lacks that kind of protective status.

National Grid say since the ‘super grid’ was established in the 1950s, where and how electricity is generated and used has changed significantly. As a result, the transmission system needs to evolve to continue to deliver for consumers as the UK transitions to net zero. By 2035, they forecast that over the course of a year twice as much electricity may be produced compared to last year (2023).

The section covering Central and Southern Scotland outlines the case for the swathe of towers and overhead lines making up CMN3 and HGNC.

According to Beyond 2030: "As the level of energy ambition in Scotland scales up, existing challenges on the electricity network become more dominant. Currently, one of the most congested areas on Great Britain’s electricity network is the area around the border between Scotland and England. This congestion is projected to get worse, and significant investment is required to ensure the system can be run in an economic and efficient manner. 

"Without this investment, this one specific part of the network has the potential to cost consumers across Great Britain hundreds of millions of pounds per year. This is because, in the absence of the investment recommended, renewable electricity generated in Scotland will not be able to be moved to where it can be used because of these capacity constraints."

This would mean that renewable generators in Scotland would have to be paid to turn off, while additional gas and other non-renewable generation would have to be switched on across the south of the network in order to balance supply and demand - but the recommended investments would heavily reduce the requirement to do this. 

If network capacity in the region is not improved, warns the report, the costs to consumers and the amount of renewable electricity generators needed to pay not to generate will grow year on year. 

"We are looking to address this congestion in part by designing a network that provides significant additional capacity using offshore cables (which was recommended, in part, by our previous network planning recommendations), reducing, although not avoiding, the need for new infrastructure throughout the Central Belt and Borders."

The recommendations also include the construction of multiple new substations – 'helping to connect more circuits together and improve network operability'. These new substations also provide opportunities to connect future renewable electricity or strategic flexible demand projects, as well as meeting the forecasted growth in the demand for electricity. To achieve this requirement, the proposals include a new electrical ‘spine’ of upgrades and infrastructure. 

"These projects are in their very first stage of development, but the concept of such a spine will be crucial to handling the influx of power from offshore wind from off the north coast of Scotland. This spine builds upon previous recommendations for new circuit routes from the South West and South East of Scotland to the North West of England. This will provide significantly more capability across the Anglo-Scottish border."

Descriptions of the two aspects of new infrastructure in the Borders are included in the report:

CMN3 - Greatly increases the network capability between Southern Scotland and Northern England. It also increases access to the transmission network in the Borders area Rationale: This option forms part of the new north to south electrical spine. It provides significant capacity for power flows between Scotland and England, reducing constraint costs for consumers and allowing onshore and offshore wind to be used more effectively. This is beneficial as the area in which the alternatives were previously recommended is extremely congested. Moving these circuits allows for other alternatives which score better against our four design objectives.

 HGNC - Improves the capability of the existing east coast circuits in Scotland and provides power to an additional offshore link from Scotland Rationale: This option forms part of the new north to south electrical spine. It provides significant capacity for power flows between Central Belt and the Borders. It will also allow for better use of existing and new circuits in the South of Scotland and North of England, reducing constraint costs for consumers and allowing offshore wind to be used more effectively.

And all of this will follow the relentless development of wind farms across the Borders landscape with still no let up in the number of new applications reaching local planners and the Scottish Government's Energy Consents Unit.

The feverish race to get large turbines up and running has (so far) resulted in Scottish Borders Council's wind farm database running to an impressive 24 pages although not all of the proposed schemes have been sanctioned.

Nevertheless, there is a growing body of opinion within the region that many local hill ranges are in danger of being swamped and industrialised by the sheer number of green power projects. Time to call a halt, say the critics.