Grid equipment and design should be standardised

The Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) has called for improved standardisation of electricity transmission equipment and route design.

The body makes the recommendation in the supporting document for Nick Winser’s report to government on how to accelerate the delivery of electricity transmission infrastructure.

The electricity networks commissioner, who also chairs ESC, set out his proposals in an open letter to energy secretary Grant Shapps that was released on Friday (4 August).

The ESC’s companion report says there should be improved standardisation of the equipment required to build or reinforce new or existing infrastructure. It says the standards currently used within Great Britain are often different to those used across Europe and the rest of the world, meaning manufacturers need to meet GB-specific requirements. This issue is made worse by the fact that standards are “not always the same” across the three transmission owners in Britain.

Furthermore, the report says the specifications for assets such as cables are often not defined until the detailed planning stage. When combined with the already long lead times for the supply chain, this can cause delays in construction.

The report says there should be a level of standardisation that “allows solutions to be built that accommodate genuine differences in requirements, but wherever possible provides access to the benefits of consistency within GB and with other markets”. It says these benefits include greater speed and diversity of supply and lower costs through economies of scale.

To address this issue, the ESC says a forum should be created between the Future System Operator (FSO), the transmission owners, equipment manufacturers and Ofgem to review and update the equipment standards used in Great Britain. The forum should aim to standardise equipment specifications across transmission owners, standardise equipment ratings used within project design and apply international standards where appropriate and beneficial.

The report says this forum could be led by the FSO and should be overseen by Ofgem to ensure that competition is not adversely impacted. It says open engagement with the supply chain will be necessary to ensure the process does not favour particular manufacturers, especially those that are larger.

It says the use of standard equipment should be endorsed through planning policies as there may be implications for the amount of land needed, access conditions and the environment.

The ESC says there should likewise be standardisation of the route design for new infrastructure. It says the design of new infrastructure and visual amenity mitigations can draw on varying approaches and technologies, including different tower designs, the use of overhead or underground power lines and the use of indoor or outdoor substations.

The rules and guidance set out in the National Policy Statements, the National Planning Framework and the Holford rules can be open interpretation. Haggling over route design and visual amenities to gain community acceptance can slow down the planning and regulatory approval processes.

The ESC says a set of Electricity Transmission Design Principles should be created to provide greater clarity on the type of assets that should be used in different environments. These principles should be endorsed by the government and Ofgem and referenced in the National Policy Statements and the National Planning Framework.

Guidance around the use of visual mitigations should also be enhanced, clearly setting out in which instances underground and offshore routes are appropriate.

The report says the use of these principles should remove the need to create multiple route designs for planning and regulatory approval processes, saving time and resources for all parties involved.

The ESC says engagement with communities should be focused on the choices they can influence within these principles and guidelines. There should be clarity over the weighting that should be given to community feedback and concerns.

The transmission owner must make prompt decisions after consulting with local communities. If communities object to hosting infrastructure or request further visual mitigation, then Planning Inspectorate in England and Wales and the Scottish government in Scotland should make decisions on the trade-offs between local and national interests.

A working group should be created to establish the design principles and guidance. This should be led by the FSO and include the transmission owners, the government and Ofgem.

The ESC says processes and tools should additionally be created for the automation of both corridor routing and route design. In the case of the latter, these should be based on the aforementioned Electricity Transmission Design Principles. The use of these processes and tools should be recognised in the planning approval process.

The report notes that automated corridor routing tools are already used by transmission owners, but says this should become standard practice.

As part of his brief from government, Winser was tasked with finding out whether it is possible to halve the typical delivery time for electricity transmission projects from 14 years currently down to seven. The ESC’s report says its recommended actions around standardisation and automation will be necessary to reduce the pre-planning application stage from eight years down to two-and-a-half.

Nick Winser is one of the speakers at Utility Week Forum, which takes place in London on 4 – 5 October. For more information and to see the full programme, click here.