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Scottish Daily Mail By Claire Elliot
HOMEOWNERS along the route of a 70-mile ‘monster’ pylon scheme could see the value of their property slump by up to 30 per cent, experts have warned.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) want to create an overhead power line stretching from the west of Aberdeen to just north of Dundee as part of a £20billion upgrade of the grid system.
The plans, consisting of two substations and miles of towering 187ft steel structures in the North-East, have already faced strong opposition with campaigners fearing the unsightly pylons will destroy the rural landscape.
But property experts claim homeowners could be the biggest losers after a study suggested they stand to ‘collectively’ lose ‘£1million a mile’ on the value of their properties as a direct result of the scheme.
Ian Thornton-Kemsley, from property consultants Galbraith, said ‘reductions of between 10 per cent and 30 per cent’ arising from new pylon lines were not unheard of.
‘It’s a big issue,’ he added. ‘I don’t believe they [SSEN] have analysed how many residential properties are affected.’
Galbraith’s study looked at a one-mile section of the line where 21 properties worth an estimated £10million were affected.
The firm believes there could be at least a 10 per cent devaluation across the board with more valuable properties facing an even greater percentage loss.
Independent Home Reports are already issuing warnings in the area about the future marketability of houses close to pylons.
Mr Thornton-Kemsley lives on the route near Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, where two cottages he owns will be less than 650ft from the proposed pylons, which will run 70 miles from Kintore, Aberdeenshire, to Tealing in Angus.
He said: ‘SSEN have suggested house values would not be affected by pylons installed nearby at recent consultations. That flies in the face of existing evidence including a paper by Ofgem supporting the undergrounding of cables by SSEN.
‘Landowners affected by the route stand to lose out, but they are in the minority. There will be a far greater number of house owners affected by the route and they will not get compensation.’
Mr Thornton-Kemsley also feared borrowers could be put at financial risk as the value of their homes could ‘shrink’ below the mortgage balance owed.
SSEN has been holding consultations in communities along the proposed route, which hundreds of protesters have attended.
At one in Stonehaven in Kincardineshire the Save Our Mearns campaign group called for a stop to the ‘monster’ pylons.
In a statement, Kate Matthews, one of the group’s founders, said: ‘SSEN are proposing 21 different projects across North and North East Scotland for OHL [overhead lines] and substations. The cumulative impact is horrendous. Our communities are going to pay heavily for net zero again and again.’
SSEN said it had not seen any ‘clear, objective evidence’ that the 400kV Kintore to Tealing project will have a direct impact on the value of properties.
A spokesman added: ‘Once the alignment for the overhead line is finalised, we will engage with property owners about any evidenced impacts with each case considered on its own merits within the relevant statutory frameworks.
‘We have engaged with local communities including homeowners as part of our ongoing consultation process, and several events have taken place this month at locations along the proposed route.’
KEEPING the lights on while meeting green energy targets will need a £58billion network expansion to get the power where it is needed, a report warned yesterday.
Britain’s electricity grid operator said a predicted 65 per cent increase in demand by 2035 will require the ‘once in a generation’ investment.
This includes an ‘electrical spine’ reaching from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire to Merseyside to bring power south from North Sea windfarms.
Fintan Slye, executive director of the Electricity System Operator (ESO), insisted that ‘swift, co-ordinated and lasting action’ was needed soon.
While the report is likely to raise fears of more pylons springing up across the countryside, it includes detailed recommendations of where new infrastructure is needed or existing connections upgraded which reveal that three-quarters of the new connections will be using undersea cables.
The new strategy is designed to harness a major expansion in green energy that will see Britain’s offshore windfarm capacity growing to become the biggest in Europe and larger even than the USA’s.
But ‘bottlenecks’ in the current grid system prevent renewable electricity being transported from where it is generated to where it is used.
Britain’s electricity grid, which dates back to the 1950s, was designed around coal-fired power stations in the centre of the country, which has required only small upgrades since. But growth in the demand for power from the grid will accelerate over the next decade as motorists switch to electric cars and more heating needs are met through electricity rather than gas.
‘The current grid is reaching its capacity and is unable to transport much more electricity,’ the report said. ‘Currently, energy is being wasted as the grid cannot transport it to where it can be used.
‘Because of these bottlenecks, as the system operator, we sometimes have to ask wind farms to switch off to prevent the grid becoming overloaded – wasting cheap, sustainable, home-grown wind power.’
The plans are in addition to £60billion of investment in infrastructure needed by 2030 that was laid out in a previous report, but which the new document says will ‘only get Britain so far in its journey towards producing the greener and cheaper electricity that will be needed’.
‘Great Britain is about to embark upon the biggest change to the electricity network since the high voltage grid was established back in the 1950s,’ it said.
Last night a Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: ‘These are preliminary plans published by the Electricity Systems Operator. Any projects taken forward would be required to progress through a robust planning process.’
3 Comments
Mike Raeburn · April 24, 2024 at 1:01 pm
We currently have five pipelines running the length of the East Coast, plus a 48in storage and transmission pipe. These are 36in pipes with loads of room to run a couple of cables within them. some are destined to carry gas back to offshore for reinjection, there is no reason why that could not be done even with a couple of cables within the pipe. There is no reason why these pipes can not carry large diameter cables, perhaps with DC current. It might be necessary to open them every kilometer or so to get the cables through but that would certainly be less disruptive than building huge pylons. The power companies will raise all sorts of objections to this but it has been done before.
Claire · July 9, 2024 at 11:22 pm
I live at Trabrown I do not want pylons near my house. It is lovely countryside I don’t want it scarred by these horrendous pylons. The present ones are bad enough they make awful noise when raining and are not safe to people’s health. These pylons will devalue our property and disrupt our lives. This is a mental health issue.
SAS Volunteer · July 10, 2024 at 12:48 pm
You have a lot of support against fighting wind farms in your area. Wind farms and pylons are wedded together. You are in a better position than most Council areas in Scotland as you also have a good Planning Authority who are not reluctant to refuse wind farm applications. Less people campaign against pylons because so many people are already living with them. They run right through villages, towns and parts of cities and no-one seems to complain. The village down the road from me in East Renfrewshire has them running through a housing estate and over a primary school. However there are a number of campaign groups in the north and north east of Scotland who are fighting SSEs proposals but of course in the Borders it will be SPR’s proposals you will have to oppose when the time comes.