“This announcement from the Minister for Energy scrapping the OCSS is not necessarily bad news.”
SEAS suspected that this award made by the OCSS was a way to halt sensible pilot options for LionLink to pool energy with ScottishPower ( SPR) EA1N and EA2; and Nautilus to pool North Falls and Five Estuaries, taking it to West Grain.
It was an attempt for National Grid to appear to be doing offshore innovative projects, but it was messy thinking. Why take wind energy from North Falls and Five Estuaries North to Friston/ Saxmundham to bring it South to London?
Muddled thinking on the part of a private developer National Grid plc with too much freedom to do its own bidding. National Grid plc is still overseeing the strategy for this country’s energy grid, both offshore and onshore. National Grid is biased in favour of its own profit making ventures such as LionLink and Nautilus.
The Sea Link joint project with North Falls and Five Estuaries was a bad plan and we are not lamenting its abandonment.
It was not part of a true offshore meshed grid framework. It was a bit of cosmetic showmanship to enable National Grid to say “we are doing offshore pooling energy”.
Sea Link itself is a bad plan. An expensive £1.8billion white elephant project. Not necessary if you take the ScottishPower wind energy to a brownfield site closer to London. Sealink is a bootstrap project according to National Grid for “reasons of resilience”. In other words, the existence of Sea Link was justified on the basis of too much energy coming to Friston. We disagree with the logic. There is no excess energy at Friston if one does not bring ScottishPower, Nautilus and Lion Link here in the first place. Coastal Suffolk does not need this energy. We have enough here already. These projects would be cheaper, more efficient and faster in the mid- term if they were routed under the sea to major hubs closer to major demand, places such as West Grain.
Is this Government going to see through the National Grid self- interested projects which benefit National Grid but trash precious wetlands and prime farming land?
It is “common sense” to use brownfield sites closer to London and to protect some of the most unspoiled landscapes in Britain.
The OCSS “offshore coordination strategic study” ended up being a sham. A PR stunt
If Grenfell has a lesson for politicians and developers it is this. We must put our people, our communities first. Not private companies’ profit. It’s not surprising that planning has a poor reputation in Britain. Short- termism has ruled the day. Cutting corners, trampling over people, not thinking about the implications of their narrow thinking. Good strategic thinking takes into account the socioeconomic implications.