Could Centrica Build An Alternative Grid For The UK?
Andy Burnham’s Speech In Liverpool Introduced The Great British Grid
This extract is what he said on energy and the grid.
One of the biggest barriers to growth in the UK is the cost of energy. British businesses and billpayers pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe.
Within 10 years, I want those costs to be in line with our neighbours.
This means reforming a broken energy market so it better serves the public interest.
We are already taking more control of our electricity prices with a massive expansion of home-grown renewables and nuclear. I have asked Miatta to speed up the breaking of the link between what we pay for power at home and the international gas market, to get bills down.
And we will be pragmatic in relation to the North Sea as we build a bridge to a clean energy future and face the climate crisis.
But it’s not just the price. The system needs to work better too. You would not believe how many businesses complain to me they can’t get going because they can’t get connected to the grid.
It pushes costs up. It drags growth down. And it holds Britain back. We won’t get the growth and inward investment we need if we don’t fix it.
So, for the first time, we will have a national energy plan and we will bring back local democratic control through a stronger role for mayors and local leaders.
But we must go further. Today I can announce our plan for Great British Grid. A new branch of Great British Energy. A publicly-owned company that will challenge the private sector operators.
But is Andy Burnham’s plan realisable?
The Great Grid Upgrade From Norwich To Tilbury
National Grid are aiming to replace the grid between Norwich and Tilbury to add extra capacity and the details of the project are on this web site.
This is a map of the route.
To ascertain the level of objections, I asked Google AI “Norwich to Tilbury grid objections” and received this reply.
Local councils, residents, and organizations object to National Grid’s Norwich to Tilbury Project primarily due to the visual and ecological damage of using 50-meter overhead pylons instead of offshore or underground alternatives.
Key Objections and Concerns
Overhead Pylons vs. Alternatives: Opposition to roughly 100 miles (159–183 km) of towering onshore overground lines. Objectors demand fully costed offshore high-voltage direct current (HVDC) or underground cabling options.
Environmental & Landscape Harm: Severe impact on protected and valued landscapes, including the Dedham Vale national landscape and Waveney Valley, alongside extensive tree loss and disruption to local wildlife habitats.
Heritage & Property Impacts: Damage to the settings of historic buildings and significant property or land devaluation, including negative impacts on planned developments like the Dunton Hills Garden Village in Brentwood.
Unrealistic Delivery Timeline: Concern that the targeted 2030/2031 completion deadline is overly ambitious, forcing rushed implementation without proper scrutiny of cumulative effects from multiple East Anglian energy projects.
Community Disruption: Strain on local highways, disruptive weekend and bank holiday working hours, agricultural disruption, and a lack of adequate community compensation or tangible social value.
The Nimbys don’t seem very keen on more and bigger overhead power lines.
Conclusion
I believe building a second set of power lines across the country will be very difficult, if not impossible.
The Investment Of Centrica And Others In innovative Energy Technology
I think we’ll see innovation from the likes of Centrica, Octopus, National Grid and others, as to how we get our energy delivered.
Centrica and others, who include the UK Government, have backed four British companies, that I’m sure will be used in the grid of 2030.
- Ceres have developed a fuel cell that runs on hydrogen, biomethane or natural gas. It was thought it would be used to power data centres, but it could be used to provide power anywhere there is a gas supply, like a big factory or a new housing estate.
- Heata was developed by British Gas Research and is part of a data centre, which sits in a domestic hot water tank and the waste heat gives you affordable hot water.
- Highview Power make liquid-air batteries up to 300 MW/3.2 GWh. Significantly, Andy Burnham performed the groundbreaking for a 50 MW/300 MWh battery in Manchester, when he was Mayor of Greater Manchester.
- HiiROC from Hull University have a way to make hydrogen that uses only a fifth of the electricity. Cemex are using HiiROC to make low-carbon cement at Rugby. I also think Jim Ratcliffe has plans for HiiROC, as he is an investor with Centrica and others.
Could Centrica build an innovative Great British Grid from their investments?
I don’t think so because of the problem I indicated earlier with Norwich to Tilbury of putting up more overhead cables.
But all of these four companies can provide support and enhancement to the existing grid.
- Ceres could be used to provide extra power, where it is needed, if there is a suitable gas supply.
- Heata could be used to give a large proportion of houses and flats affordable hot water.
- Highview Power could be used to provide energy storage where too much energy is being generated at times and needs to be stored for a number of hours.
- I believe that many large wind farms will be connected to the grid, with a Highview Power battery at the sub-station.
- I also believe that we could see Highview Power batteries installed offshore to smooth wind farm output.
- HiiROC could produce hydrogen when and where it is needed.
The big problem will be that the grid will get more complicated and will be more difficult to control.
In Centrica And Return Partner To Scale Battery Flexibility In Germany, I ask Google AI if Centrica are good at optimising batteries and received this reply.
Yes, Centrica is considered a strong and established player in grid battery (BESS) optimisation.
Centrica Energy leverages over 15 years of flexible asset trading experience and has actively optimised battery energy storage systems since 2018. They currently manage over 950 MW of grid-scale batteries on contract across the UK and Europe.
It may be difficult to manage all these assets, but it does appear that Centrica have the mathematicians and engineers, who are up to the task.
The Future Of Nuclear
Consider.
- The four nuclear stations at Hartlepool, Heysham 1, Heysham 2 and Torness are to be shut down by March 2030, which will lose approximately 5 GW of zero-carbon electricity.
- Hinckley Point C will deliver 3.2 GW from the early 2030s.
- Sizewell C will deliver 3.2 GW at some time in the future.
Can we rely on solar and wind power to power the UK?
It is not a question of can, but we have to.
But Centrica have made a bold move to link up with X-energy of the US to build a fleet of small modular reactors called an Xe-100.
- I wrote about the initial deal in Centrica And X-energy Agree To Deploy UK’s First Advanced Modular Reactors.
- In Hartlepool Nuclear Reactor Moves To UK Regulatory Assessment, I talk about how the first reactor will be built at Hartlepool.
- In Centrica, X-energy Advance Nuclear Plans As UK Regulators To Begin Design Review For Xe-100, I say more about the design and the parners in the Xe-100.
- In With Federal Funding Windfall, X-energy Advances Small Nuclear Reactor, I talk about US Federal funding for X-energy.
- In TRISO-X Completes Vertical Construction Of TX-1 Fuel Fabrication Facility, I describe how they are cracking on with the fuel facility in the US.
It certainly, seems to be a project that has started with a certain degree of momentum, which says to me, they have got the project management right.
But believe that these 80 MW Xe-100 reactors, if strategically placed around the country will keep us going as older nuclear and gas power stations are retired.
The Relationship Between Andy Burnham And Chris O’Shea
I wrote about this in Have Chris O’Shea And Andy Burnham Met?
I will assume its a good relationship, until proven otherwise.
Conclusion
I wonder whether in the end, the Great British Grid is a series of extensions to the current grid we have.
No comments yet.
Leave a comment