A row over a controversial proposal to build a 180km-long line of new pylons through East Anglia has escalated, amid warring claims over the cost of running the route offshore instead.
The company behind the proposal, National Grid, want their ‘East Anglia GREEN’ scheme of 50m-high pylons to run from Dunston, just outside Norwich, down to the Thames Estuary.
They say the project is necessary to conduct increasing amounts of wind power, generated off the Norfolk coast, down to London and the rest of the country - thus helping the UK achieve its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
But a group of MPs, chaired by North Essex MP Sir Bernard Jenkin and known as OffSET, believe the line should instead be buried under the sea, and run around the region’s coastline to reach its destination - as part of an ‘integrated offshore grid’.
Now in a letter to OffSET, National Grid has claimed that an equivalent offshore version of the project would cost six times as much money.
Their project’s director, Liam Walker, said that while the current proposal would cost £793.5m to build, with a lifetime cost of £1,136.00m - an offshore equivalent would cost £4,168.40m to build, with a lifetime cost of £7,332.10m.
South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon - whose constituency would host the first part of the route - said: "National Grid's approach is wholly inadequate and looks suspiciously like an attempt to pre-determine the conclusion before doing serious analysis of all the options including the offshore route."
"In common with many of my parliamentary colleagues across East Anglia I have lost confidence in National Grid.
“We will continue to make the case to ministers for a proper analysis from an independent source which can command greater confidence".
Rosie Pearson, spokesperson for the action group of residents opposing the pylons, was similarly dissatisfied - arguing that the offshore option presented by National Grid was “half-baked” because it assumed the need for the power to travel onshore to Norwich before again travelling out of the county and offshore.
A National Grid spokesman countered that some wind power projects already have planning consent for cabling to run to Norwich, which is why their costings factored that journey in.
He added: “We understand that people have concerns about our proposals and we will continue to engage with local communities and work hard to mitigate impacts, which we will present in detail in late Spring 2023."
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