600 Miles of new power lines needed in UK

[Countrypaul]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207113jz73o

[dan_b]

600 miles doesn't sound like much at all?

Oh but then you read this bit

" along with 4,800 km of undersea cables, it said."

Which does sound a bit more substantial. Best get started then hadn't we!

[AE-NMidlands]

and I suspect based on the same report/press release/interview on R4 this morning, https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... lectricity says

A plan to create a clean electricity system by 2030 promised by Labour before the election is “immensely challenging” but still “credible” if ministers take urgent action to fix Britain’s sluggish planning system, the energy system operator has said.
Britain could become a net exporter of green electricity by the end of the decade at no extra costs to the energy system under the plans and bills may even fall if ministers make the right policy changes, according to the operator.

The newly formed National Energy System Operator (Neso) put forward the conclusions as part of its official advice to new ministers on how to reach Labour election pledge to decarbonise the power system by 2030.
Fintan Slye, the chief executive of Neso, said: “There’s no doubt that the challenges ahead on the journey to delivering clean power are great. However, if the scale of those challenges is matched with the bold, sustained actions that are outlined in this report, the benefits delivered could be even greater.”

Labour has faced questions over whether the 2030 target can realistically be met. The Neso report said Britain’s regional power networks would need to grow at a pace more than four times faster than in the past decade, while the UK’s high-voltage transmission network would need to be built at twice the rate of the previous 10 years in the next five.

[Moxi]

Is that 600miles pylon to pylon or circuit to circuit ?

ie is it 200miles distance and 600miles of cable or 600 miles distance and 1,800 miles of cable ?

either way, it really should be something we can do as a nation in short order IF everyone got behind the need and did their bit appreciating that cables and transformers might be a long lead item now since the UK lost its manufacturing capability for such items

Moxi

[Ken]

Is that amount of cable over 5yrs a problem then ?

Over the last 20yrs i have seen many high level reports and i cannot remember one that has come true. This one could be different but i doubt it.

The main problem comes about from the predictions that it is based on and lack of imagination for the future. Solar and batts behind the meter will become cheaper and coupled with TOU tariffs,V2G will allow zero electricity bills. We will have repowering of onshore wind connecting to present transmission with coupled storage and huge more storage in general. Where there is demand there is always supply perhaps not always in the form one first thought of.

Electricity use of the grid ie in front of the meter, continues to decline

[Ken]

Britain could become a net exporter of green electricity by the end of the decade at no extra costs to the energy system under the plans and bills may even fall if ministers make the right policy changes, according to the operator.

The Neso report said Britain’s regional power networks would need to grow at a pace more than four times faster than in the past decade, while the UK’s high-voltage transmission network would need to be built at twice the rate of the previous 10 years in the next five.

[/quote]

We already do export green electricity in times of glut but in general that is difficult because the EU governments pays for the transmission lines and we do not and therefore our leccy is more expensive.

10 yrs ago there was not the demand and therefore not the supply

[AE-NMidlands]

I thought that "a net exporter of green electricity by the end of the decade at no extra costs" was the key bit... if we design and develop it correctly/intelligently it will be an earner for UK plc.