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Ann 🧡 (she/her)

Anton Howes on how the history of transport infrastructure
"reveals to us a sort of hierarchy of applications when it comes to promoting economic growth: above all access to energy, secondarily to markets for other goods, and only then to labour."

Failure to fund and build a railway or canal in the 1820s is why my hometown of didn't grow and lost its linen industry.

ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-in

Age of Invention, by Anton HowesAge of Invention: Freight ExpectationsBy Anton Howes
Ann 🧡 (she/her)

Beginning to feel that we need a 21st Century reimagining of Middlemarch on the BBC or something to help us have a better national conversation about the need for pylons carrying offshore generated electricity. Situation feels bad from multiple angles.

Folks in villages getting to say "no" with no admission of the costs of delay to wider society feels very unfair, at least to me.

(Also, quite what is happening to Tories in East Anglia is extremely 👀 too.)

ft.com/content/f216dcfb-6e95-4

Financial TimesThis English village shows how a pylon backlash threatens the green energy shiftBy Rachel Millard
Ann 🧡 (she/her)

"Situation feels bad from multiple angles" meaning that authoritarian imposition of pylons would be bad for communities but delays are also likely very costly.

Someone is going to have to make a sacrifice and no-one really mentions this explicitly.

Ann 🧡 (she/her)

Well, it would seem that Tories who profess to love the countryside have reached the "finding out" stage of their Thatcherism.

(Adding only that the absolute state of what passes for a written answer with this government is shameful. The written question was a reasonable one and deserved a proper answer.)

Written Question James Cartlidge, Conservative, South Suffolk To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will make an estimate of the (a) time it would take to complete and (b) cost of transmitting the capacity required from East Anglia GREEN pylons through alternative primarily undersea interconnectors. Answer Greg Hands, Conservative Chelsea and Fulham Answered on 21 July 2022 Private network operators, in this case National Grid Electricity Transmission, are responsible for delivering network infrastructure necessary to meet consumer needs. This includes identifying preferred options for the infrastructure, considering a range of factors. Network operators tender for suppliers to deliver the project, considering efficiencies and cost, to ensure value for money for the consumer. The independent energy regulator, Ofgem, regulates and incentivises network operators to do this efficiently through its network price controls, including considering delivery times and technical capability of individual projects.
Ann 🧡 (she/her)

FT this morning reporting on businesses around the country limited by waits into the 2030s for power grid updates.

ft.com/content/e9588967-ea5e-4

Sadly this didn't touch on Ofgem's connections amnesty which I don't fully understand but I think is designed to allow delayed but queued projects to drop their place for more complete projects that would've otherwise been waiting connection.

Other businesses have been less fortunate. Martin Smith, chief executive of The Hex Group, a metals fabricator, wanted to install enough solar panels at his factory near Stafford in the West Midlands to ensure it was largely self- sufficient. But he was told by the local network operator that he would have to pay up to £3mn to help fund grid improvements and would have to wait until 2032 to be able to install all the panels. “It’s absolutely scandalous,” he said. Both examples illustrate the growing strains on the privately owned power distribution networks across Britain as businesses adapt to the government- mandated target of net zero emission by 2050.
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Ann 🧡 (she/her)

Meanwhile, in East Anglia, connections to the water mains are now being refused for heavy water users in Suffolk, i.e. farming.

One thing I don't understand is what kind of state we'd really want water harvesting and saving to be in on these sites.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suff

BBC NewsSuffolk water shortage may 'throttle back' firms' growthFirms that use large amounts of water are being turned away from part of the driest area of the UK.
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Ann 🧡 (she/her)

New briefing from Common Wealth on the electricity grid. Answers my Q upthread about Ofgem's connections amnesty and more.

> renewable projects now face up to 13 years to connect to the grid from the planning stages, with 600 renewable and battery storage projects with a combined capacity of 176GW in the queue to connect in England and Wales alone, compared with just 64GW of connected capacity in these technologies

common-wealth.org/publications

www.common-wealth.orgGrid is Good: The Case for Public Ownership of Transmission and Distribution | Briefing | Common WealthThe public is already paying, and will inevitably pay, for the transformation of the grid to support a decarbonised electricity system. The question is how these costs are distributed and how investment is coordinated. Public ownership can address these urgent challenges.
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