From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
A huge wind farm planned off the north coast of Scotland will not be built unless “unfair” transmission charges are overhauled, the developer has warned.
The 125-turbine West of Orkney wind farm had planned to generate enough electricity to power two million homes by 2029.
But the consortium behind the project says the cost of connecting to the electricity network – which is highest in Argyll and the north of Scotland – makes it impossible to compete against projects proposed in England.
The UK government said it is considering the charges as part of a wider review.
Transmission charges are imposed on power generators to build and maintain the network of pylons and underground cables which carry high-voltage electricity around Great Britain.
The charges for connecting to the grid were designed to encourage generators to build power stations close to where it is consumed.
It means they are the lowest around London and the south of England, where the electricity travels the shortest distance to reach the most densely populated group of consumers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8x919v8g19o
It’s hardly rocket science, is it?
If you build a wind farm near the Orkneys, how do you think that electricity is going to get to England where it will be used?
According to Grok:
The West of Orkney Windfarm (a 2 GW offshore wind project located about 30 km off the west coast of Orkney and 25 km from the north Sutherland coast) will connect to the UK’s National Grid via a grid connection agreement with National Grid ESO, specifically in Caithness on the Scottish mainland.
Electricity generated offshore will be transmitted as follows:
- Offshore export cables (high-voltage alternating current, HVAC) will carry the power from the wind farm’s offshore substation platforms to cable landfall points on the north Caithness coast. One key mentioned landfall area is to the east of the former Dounreay Nuclear Facility (near Dounreay in Caithness). Up to two cable landfalls and up to five (or more in some descriptions) associated export circuits/cables are planned, with cables buried underground once onshore.
- From the landfall points, onshore underground cables (export circuits) will route inland across Caithness for approximately 20 km (in some references) to a new onshore substation located at or near Spittal in Caithness.
- The onshore substation will handle the electrical equipment (e.g., switchgear) and connect the project directly to the National Grid transmission network. It is associated with the SHET-L Spittal 2 substation (part of the Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission network, which operates in the north of Scotland under National Grid oversight for connections).
Why should anybody else pay for all of this work, other than the wind farm itself?
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