Sir Bernard Jenkin has just provided a detailed email update to all of the many constituents who have written to him expressing concern about National Grid's Norwich-Tilbury Pylons project (previously known as the East Anglia GREEN project). We are sharing it here to reach a wider audience of Langham residents. It is good know that our MP is still working hard to push for an Offshore Grid, and championing the efforts of the anti-pylon campaign being coordinated by Rosie Pearson. A long battle still lies ahead though. The more local people that join the campaign, the more likely that Government will be positively influenced to take a more strategic approach to expanding the UK's Energy Grid to meet future needs!
Here is Sir Bernard's email update in full:
Dear residents
You are receiving this email as one of the many hundreds of concerned residents of Harwich and North Essex who have contacted me about various aspects of the Norwich to Tilbury pylon proposals. As ever, I am sorry for the impersonal nature of this update but I want to keep residents informed on my work on the pylons issue. I continue to be inundated with emails, not just from the many of you who have heard from me before on this issue, but also from many new correspondents less aware of my previous campaigning against the pylons.
The House of Commons has risen for the Summer Recess but there is no conclusion to the most significant disagreement I have ever seen between the Conservative MPs in Essex and wider East Anglia, and the Conservative Government over the issue of the pylons.
Earlier this month, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero floated the proposal that planning guidance for the national grid should be changed to speed things up. This is both chilling but also evidence of the effectiveness of the pylons campaign, which has been so ably coordinated by Rosie Pearson.
I had hoped for a meeting of the Offset MPs with the Secretary of State before we rose for the recess and while this was his aspiration, Mr Shapps has been unable to deliver and is now promising a meeting in September. However, there are other developments to report.
On Wednesday, Offset MPs met the Chief Executive of Ofgem, which is the regulator that controls investment in the National Grid. Ironically, Philip Brearley’s previous job was Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee, which is the independent watchdog body monitoring the Governments progress towards Net Zero by 2050.
None of us in that meeting disagrees with that objective. But we made plane that the now-revised Norwich to Tilbury proposals are most likely to delay Net Zero achievement because there is so much despair and anger across the whole region. There will be unlimited money for court challenges and judicial review, and it is not possible to quantify how much this will delay this much needed investment.
Offset has been arguing that the off-shore options, which have only scantily been assessed so far are likely to prove much easier to implement and therefor quicker, and also better value in the longer-term. This is because they rep[lace a piecemeal approach with a coherent strategy to connect offshore windfarms with off-shore undersea continental interconnectors. They also take electricity generated offshore straight down to the Thames Estuary, which futureproofs the system for further investment. A strategic approach would also take account of the proposed hydrogen hub at Harwich-Felixstowe (which requires substantial electricity supplies for hydrogen generation) and the possibility of new generating capacity at Bradwell, which is simply not anywhere in National Grid’s present plans.
We all agreed that the September meeting with the Secretary of State should be a round table of all the parties- National Grid, the electricity supply operator, the windfarm investors, Ofgem, DESNZ, Offset MPs, and chaired by the Secretary of State. This has led me to suggest to Grant Shapps that he needs to do far more than just revise the planning guidance. The department has recently appointed an experienced National Grid engineer, Nick Winser. I hope he will also be at our September meeting. We need to understand that the climate crisis is an emergency, like Covid. Just as we had a vaccine taskforce to cut through the bureaucracy to develop the vaccines we needed, the recent years have proved we need a National Grid taskforce to accelerate the massive investment required in order to replace carbon-generated electricity generation with green alternatives. This is also necessary or energy security, so that we also pay less for electricity. imports.
But there has been another minor bombshell. Vattenfall is a Swedish company which was planning a massive investment in North Sea wind, until this week. They have now put their plans on hold. This certainly begs the question: is Norwich to tilbury now necessary in its present form at all? Does this give us a breathing space to develop the offshore alternatives that will mean our voters can support the Government’s Net Zero proposals?
I will keep on the case and update you all again when the various aspects of this campaign progress. For now, I wish you all a good summer and hope you find some serenity outside in our wonderful Essex countryside.
Best wishes
Yours
Bernard
