The argument for an offshore grid network “has been won”, Kwasi Kwarteng has declared.
While unable to provide a commitment that the next Queen’s Speech would include steps to facilitate an offshore network, the energy minister told Parliament yesterday (5 November) that any upcoming legislation from his own Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) “must include” the regulation of the offshore grid.
“Shifting away from individual connections towards a larger, more integrated solution would be environmentally sensible as well as presenting an enormous economic opportunity,” he said, pointing to a recently published analysis by National Grid’s electricity systems operator into replacing the existing point to point transmission system with an offshore network.
This showed, Kwarteng said, that a “fully integrated” offshore network could deliver up to £6 billion worth of savings by 2050, without taking into account local environmental benefits.
Referring to the government’s recently announced target to roll out 40GW of offshore wind generation by 2030, Kwarteng said: “We cannot afford to slow that rate, so given the nature of the ambition, it is absolutely right that we should look at developing an offshore transmission network system.”
But he urged East Anglian MPs to be patient about the timescale for rolling out an offshore network.
“We want to expedite this process, but we are talking about very expensive infrastructure and about redesigning or tweaking the regulatory framework in order to accommodate that investment.
“What is critically under discussion at the moment is the timing.
“These things take time, but it is absolutely right for him and other MPs to hold the government’s feet to the fire.”
Kwarteng was responding to a debate instigated by backbench Conservative MP Duncan Baker who said that communities in his North Norfolk constituency have been “blighted” by the ad-hoc system of developing transmission infrastructure for each new offshore wind farm.
He said: “They are causing major environmental damage, as wildlife habitats and agricultural land are dug up multiple times. Nutrient-rich land is sometimes irreversibly damaged from the disturbance caused, and many farmers report poor crop growth along cable routes—much worse than before those cables were put into the ground—caused by the disturbance of the digging. Communities also suffer great socioeconomic damage from the disruption and upheaval caused.
“This is now an issue of speed.”
Baker’s fellow Conservative MP James Cartlidge, who backed Baker, said: “By using an integrated approach with the infrastructure out at sea, we reduce the environmental and social impacts of the point-to-point connections, such as cables and onshore landings, by about 50 per cent”
The creation of an offshore grid to support the UK’s growing offshore wind industry was backed in a new report by right wing thinktank Policy Exchange earlier this week.