Support for powerline

Jul 3 2009 by Iain Howie, Stirling Observer Friday

AN influential group of MSPs has called for the Beauly to Denny power line project to be approved.

The economy, energy and tourism committee at Holyrood also wants the decision process for major projects to be speeded up.

The line was first mooted five years ago and Scottish ministers are due to make their decision on the line later this year.

The proposal has attracted around 18,000 responses to the Scottish Government and was subject to one of the country’s longest running and most costly public inquiries.

The committee’s report “Determining and Delivering on Scotland’s Energy Future” says the line “must not be associated with unrealistic planning conditions that would have the effect of causing unnecessary delays or placing this critical component of Scotland’s network in jeopardy”.

The committee also said it was concerned at the level of onshore windfarm refusals.

Committee convener Iain Smith said: “This report sets out our energy vision for Scotland and how best the Scottish Government can achieve it, striking the right balance between energy costs, security of supply and the environment.”

MEP Struan Stevenson described the committee’s report as extremely disappointing.

In a letter to the Observer he said: “The decision by Holyrood’s economy, energy and tourism committee to give the go-ahead to the Beauly to Denny power line is extremely disappointing.

“Overhead powerlines were first utilised by Stalin during his race to roll out the industrial revolution in the USSR. It seems ridiculous that more than a century later we are still allowing power companies to wreck our landscape and put people’s health at risk by using old, cheap and nasty technology like this.

“I recently chaired a meeting which heard evidence from leading EU cable experts that the cost of underground cabling is only around five times more than overhead powerlines, not the 15 to 20 times more the power companies claim.

“The EU cable experts estimate that undergrounding 25 per cent of the Beauly to Denny route in the most sensitive areas would add around £1 to everyone’s electricity bill in the UK, a small price to pay for such an enormous national benefit.

“Or is the answer an undersea cable right down the west coast from Ullapool to Ayrshire?”

A spokesperson for Stirling Before Pylons said the line could actually be counterproductive for the long-term sustainability of energy production in Scotland.

The spokesperson said that other options for the line were not fully explored in the public inquiry, including upgrading lines elsewhere or using a sub-sea cable, and these could offer less environmentally damaging and less costly solutions.