THE glacial process of making the National Grid feasible for renewable
energy producers in Scotland’s remote regions is gathering pace.
The energy regulator Ofgem announced its plan to bash heads together in an
effort to sort out the high cost of pumping renewable energy into the UK
transmission network back in 2010. This week, it is to start discussing the
28 or so plans put forward by the committee gathered together by the
National Grid called Project TransmiT.
The vexing question will be who is going to pay for making the grid green
energy friendly. Back in 2010 Ofgem put its finger in the air and came up
with an eye watering figure of £200 billion. In the meantime, renewable
energy producers have been paying over the odds to have their wind and wave
power used while CO2-belching coal-powered stations have been paying peanuts.
The issue of high charges from the margins of the country is a legacy of
the grid’s development. Power stations were built next to centres of
population or, in the case of nuclear, near to vast amounts of cooling
water. It made sense then but if we are to get offshore wind and wave power
from Orkney or the Hebrides connected, it has to be done in a way that
these nascent energy producers aren’t coshed by the cost of transmitting
their energy.
According to Martin McAdam, chief executive of wave power start-up
Aquamarine Power, the “desire to develop a low-carbon economy is being
thwarted by an outdated grid charging mechanism”. In a blog post, he has
called on Ofgem to get a move on, and “end discrimination of energy source
based on location”.
The future of investment in wind and wave, he argues, depends on it.
Earlier this month, his firm, which has been testing its clam-shaped wave
device at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) off Orkney, won planning
permission for its 40 MW wave farm off the north-west coast of Lewis.
The technology is working – and seemingly less invasive and dangerous to
wildlife than wind turbines – yet the connection to the grid remains a
major stumbling block.
But Aquamarine Power has some heft behind it. One of its major backers is
energy giant SSE, which last year confirmed it has invested £30 million
into the “Oyster” wave technology machine inventor.
It is also SSE which, as a “distribution network operator” for the National
Grid, is responsible for building the link – a 450MW interconnector between
Lewis and Beauly. Last year, the energy giant estimated costs of linking
the region to the grid had soared to £700m. If it is to get a return on
this investment it must be through transmission charges. Or subsidies. Or
both. The danger is that unless Ofgem comes up with a viable solution, the
goose that lays the green egg, so to speak, could be choked before it can
deliver.
1 Comment