News / Governments make grid connection top priority
BOTH THE Scottish and UK governments have reaffirmed their pledge to connect the islands north of the border to the national electricity grid as a matter of urgency.
A meeting on Thursday morning in Glasgow jointly chaired by UK energy secretary Ed Davey and Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing committed both governments to push ahead with grid connections as quickly as possible.
The move means that regardless of the independence referendum Shetland, Orkney and the western isles are very likely to see interconnectors laid at a total cost of around £1.5 billion.
It is estimated that the cost of the 600 megawatt (MW) Shetland interconnector will be around £600 million.
The commitment also implies that the Viking Energy wind farm will be built at some point in the future, regardless of the huge levels of opposition that have been voiced in the islands.
Currently the wind farm project is on hold following the successful judicial review of the Scottish government’s decision to grant planning consent to the 457 megawatt development across a large swathe of Shetland’s central mainland.
The government appealed the Court of Session decision 17 weeks ago and is still awaiting a judgment from the three judges who heard their case.
Thursday’s meeting of the Scottish Islands Renewables Delivery Forum was attended by representatives from the three island councils, as well as energy regulator Ofgem, National Grid, Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission LTD (SHETL), Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Renewables Forum and the three island groups’ main developers.
Viking Energy’s project manager Aaron Priest, who attended, described the meeting as “very significant”.
“Both governments are fully engaged with the process and ministers made it very, very clear they are determined island connections should go ahead and everyone at the meeting was clear they want these connections to proceed,” he said.
The various parties around the table will now embark on a detailed programme of work to iron out all the complexities around this vast piece of work that the governments believe will open up access to huge amounts of wind and marine energy.
A recent report suggested the islands could provide four terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable electricity by 2020, increasing to 18.5 TWh by 2030, equating to one and five per cent of UK demand respectively.
Another benefit is that island generation could help smooth out intermittency on the grid, as the wind might be blowing in the isles when it is calm elsewhere.
Developers hope that a 600 MW grid connection will provide capacity for an extra 200 megawatts of renewable energy from Shetland on top of what Viking generates.
However Viking’s opponents fear that the connector will be the first stage of a process that will turn Shetland into an offshore wind farm that will damage the landscape and the tourism industry.
James Mackenzie, vice chairman of campaign group Sustainable Shetland, warned: “This is like opening up a Pandora’s Box that will lead to massive industrialisation of Shetland’s landscape.”
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