ACTIVISTS battling massive pylon and transmission line developments across the Scottish Highlands – as well as expected huge incoming energy bills for homes and businesses – are challenging Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s new proposal for a UK Government-controlled energy system called GB Grid.
They demand a pause to projects and the launch of public inquiries.
“The devil will be in the details,” said Dan Bailey of Highland-based Better Cable Route on Burnham’s Labour Conference announcement to establish the new body alongside GB Energy in Aberdeen to speed up grid connections and increase competition among private sector operators.
“But we still hear far too little about the communities at the sharp end of the green transition,” Bailey added.
Better Cable Route relied on a September National Audit Office (NAO) report to describe what it termed “delays, chaos and secrecy”. This showed that some 64 of 88 grid projects won’t be delivered by the UK Government’s own 2030 clean power deadline. The National Electricity System Operator (Neso) dismissed such language as “misleading”.
The release also quoted an Ofgem publication claiming eight major grid projects being built in Scotland by Scottish and Southern Electricity (SSE) were forecasting average cost increases of 284% while a controversial super-pylon project between Loch Buidhe and Spittal is facing a 467% projected cost increase, according to an energy expert.
In pushback, the NAO report is one on which SSE published an online blog claiming that investing in the electricity transmission grid is essential to deliver energy security, support economic growth, and get costs down for consumers.
While there were costs associated with building and maintaining the grid, consumers would be better off overall, with grid upgrades planned for 2030 helping reduce a typical household bill by around £30.
The company is dismissive of Better Cable Route’s projected project costs, claiming early estimates were set in 2022, with prevailing supply chain costs.
A different cost narrative is presented by Better Cable Route. Network charges – the part of bills paying for pylons, cables and substations – are set to jump 65% between 2025 and 2030. That’s from £207 to £342 a year for the average home, citing tracking platform electricitybills.uk, with rises for businesses up to 90%.
The activist group called the findings “a national scandal in slow motion”, adding that the public deserved greater transparency.
Bailey doubled down (with backing from the recently formed convention of 200 community councils across Scotland), calling for an immediate pause on what he called “an unnecessarily expensive and complex energy system largely because of our over-deployment of wind in the north”.
The much-trumpeted GB Energy has yet to make a mark in the energy sector, so it remains to be seen whether its new powers “will amount to anything more than soundbites”, according to Bailey. GB Grid could reportedly claim some £4 billion from GB Energy’s £8.3bn budget after the latter’s formal opening in September.
“Speeding up the rollout under a piecemeal picture of part private, part public ownership would simply mean making the same mistake faster. The money still has to be found somehow, and whether it’s through bills or taxation, ultimately the public pay either way,” said Bailey.
He went on: “The UK Government should conduct a high-level inquiry into the entire grid project – and this needs to be fully transparent and collaborative. Given that planning is devolved, the Scottish Government cannot hide behind blaming Westminster and should urgently conduct its own inquiry into energy, a pan-Scotland Planning Inquiry Commission, as called for by ourselves and the CC convention.”
Meanwhile, political reaction to the Prime Minister’s GB Grid announcement has been generally muted, perhaps due to puzzlement over the implications.
While SNP Westminster energy spokesperson Graham Leadbitter was reportedly critical of GB Grid “as a new gimmick”, UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks acknowledged the NAO report on the grid.
He said: “As the National Audit Office recognises in its report, our once-in-a-generation reforms are finally building the infrastructure we need: reducing our dependence on the fossil fuels that leave households exposed to price spikes and helping lower people’s bills for good.”
Also, representing the body approving energy funding and regulating investment, an Ofgem spokesperson said: “We look forward to working with government and Great British Grid as these proposals develop, building on this progress to deliver faster connections and better value for consumers.”
Ofgem said it had taken major steps to overhaul the connections system, prioritising projects introducing clearer service standards, better information and stronger accountability for network companies.
On the proposed GB Grid and without mention of its aim for greater competition, SSE’s spokesperson said: “We’re in the process of delivering one of the most significant infrastructure build programmes Scotland and the UK have ever seen, rewiring the grid through our £29bn investment programme.
“This public-private partnership is already delivering lasting benefits for communities and the country. We look forward to working with governments and other stakeholders to continue that work into the 2030s and beyond.”
As an independent public spending watchdog, the NAO’s September report on upgrading the energy transmission network was closely examined by the organisations involved.
For example, under “programme governance”, it noted “no single point of accountability” as well as “limited management of projects as a portfolio” and “limited access to project information”. Under “strategic network planning”, national grid upgrades were funded by consumer bills and not subject to a full business case or options appraisal.
But the major players within the ambit of these findings see the report as not calling for network investment to be slowed, halted or re-considered as demanded by activists.
Indeed, a Neso spokesperson said: “The NAO report is clear that consumers are better off when electricity network infrastructure, built by Transmission Owners, is delivered on time. Delivering a new network is the single biggest lever to reduce the costs of balancing the electricity system and could halve these costs by the end of the decade.”
Activists, however, claim that new technologies could reduce the need for environment-wrecking pylons and cables in new projects, saving up to £75bn in bills. SSEN Transmission says new technologies, including dynamic line rating and modular substations, could reduce costs and site footprints.
However, activists are adamant on the way forward. Bailey said: “If the new UK Government wants to reform energy, then it should do it properly. Start from ground zero. Pause the current headless chicken rush of willy-nilly development and hold an independent inquiry into the entire energy question.
“We’ve likely missed 2030 targets, so let’s stop panicking and have a sober reassessment of the system, and an honest and fully transparent conversation about where we really want to go as a nation.”
