When the National Energy System Operator (“NESO”) produced their plan to deliver Ed Miliband’s Clean Power 2030 (“CP2030”) goal, they said that all the planned transmission grid expansion works must be built on time and that “involves twice as much in the next five years as was built in total over the last decade.” From the outset, delivering on that part of CP2030 was always a tall order.
I have been contacted by several people over the past few weeks highlighting several issues that indicate these ambitious plans (some may say fantastical) will probably not be achieved. For those of us sceptical of Net Zero generally and Clean Power 2030 in particular, this represents both good news and bad news.
First, the good news: Slipping schedules means they will not spend all the money earmarked for grid expansion, which ought to mean our bills do not go up as much as feared. The bad news is that, based on the limited data available, it looks like the costs of this work are soaring out of control.
Let’s dig into the details, beginning with the bad news so that we can end on a high note....<<<Read More>>>...
