CPRW, the Welsh Countryside Charity, welcomes the publication of the Independent Advisory Group for the Future Electricity Grid for Wales long-awaited report, first promised by the Welsh Government for December 2024. Professor Hywel Thomas has produced a well-balanced, and at times quite candid, report which advances the debate on energy infrastructure.
The report is not limited to hard technical facts and figures but considers the softer aspects that often create such an emotional reaction to grid infrastructure projects.
A key recommendation is that future infrastructure needs should be strategic, designed holistically and collaboratively by all network operators.
These are licence conditions, and Ofgem should consider whether there has been any failure of the network operators to adhere to this.
The report recognises the difficulty in balancing hard, quantifiable aspects such as installation cost and lifetime operation cost with softer, qualitative issues, such as impact on visual amenity, the environment and communities.
This is exactly where the approach advocated by H M Treasury, which is mandatory for projects involving public resources, can be used, and which provides approaches to the financial valuation of aspects such as landscape.
The report also identifies the shocking lack of transparency in decision-making or community involvement in strategic options.
Possible gaps in the report are the need to consider upgrading the existing distribution system with high-capacity conductors, the use of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) for long distances or greater enmeshment of the current grid. The recommendations are unlikely to apply to projects with retained responsibility, such as transmission or cross-border distribution, but do add to the debate around those.
Dr Jonathan F Dean said, “If these recommendations are followed, some of the more contentious projects will need to have a serious rethink, unless they are fudged as some form of strategic investment.”