The disruptive archaeological excavations, that you may have noticed taking place on the site of the proposed new electricity substation near Ardleigh, are unnecessary and premature.
Should it go-ahead, the proposed Ardleigh substation would service the new North Falls and Five Estuaries wind farms, as well as National Grid’s “Norwich to Tilbury” Electricity Transmission project.
However, more innovative solutions are available, such as the use of an offshore “bootstrap”, and the government is funding studies in pursuit of this. This would eliminate the need for a new substation in Ardleigh altogether!
If the government supports this bootstrap proposal, which it is considering as part of the Offshore Coordination Strategic Study, it changes the need for National Grid Electricity Transmission to establish this second substation in Ardleigh for the Norwich to Tilbury project. The current plan necessitates a double run of cables to and from the substation, which is highly inefficient.
National Grid Electricity Transmission has agreed to conduct a comprehensive review of the Norwich to Tilbury project following the release of the Offshore Coordination Strategic Study.
In the meantime, the unnecessary excavations have disrupted crop planting and were then flooded by Storm Babet, so that it is now too late to drill the seed for winter wheat.
I will continue to campaign for a fully integrated offshore grid for the transmission of electricity produced by the windfarms – which will streamline infrastructure, reduce its environmental footprint and better respect local communities!
