This reportanalyses the engineering costs of installing and maintaining new high voltage transmission circuits in a variety of ways, notably underground or overhead cables. Is the current high voltage transmission network in need of reinforcement in the near future?
Unquestionably yes, as we are putting in significant new sources of generation in different places.
The National Grid is quite right in that they need to reinforce the current network and, indeed, extend it by installing new circuits.
The need is absolutely clear, although admittedly in percentage terms it is not a huge amount. We have heard from National Grid that the increased circuit length that they have planned until 2021 is about 350 kilometres. It sounds significant, but the total circuit length that they have is approaching 10,000 kilometres, so the percentage figure is not that great.
The report analyses the 'lifetime cost' of the transmission network. Could you explain how this is assessed?
There are essentially two components; one is the build cost and the other is the lifetime cost, which is essentially ongoing costs covering areas such as the general maintenance of the network.
Within the build costs there are two subdivisions. One is the variable construction cost, dependent on the circuit length, and the other is the fixed construction cost, which exists independent of the circuit length. The report looks at the various technologies and compares these build costs.
The report found that these cost ratios, which lots of people home in on, are around 10 to 1.
If you then add in the lifetime costs, which includes the cost of losses, for example, this figure decreases significantly. Each circuit loses power over time, and the cost of that over the lifetime of the circuit, becomes crucial.
By adding these lifetime costs to the build costs, the ratio inevitably changes from 10 to 1, down to 5 to 1.
How have you promoted the report launch? What conversations have you had with parliamentarians about the report's findings?
We launched the report at the Wellcome Institute on Tuesday morning. We were thrilled to receive a great turnout from journalists and a very sensible and fully engaged discussion took place.
This afternoon we have been in Parliament at an event organised by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. I am pleased to say that the session was very well attended and a lively discussion ensued.
We found that many MPs had a particular constituency issue, which gave the report real pertinence. We were also pleased to see that, at the event, National Grid were asked if they supported the report, and they said that they did.
I feel that we have managed to produce an authoritative report that enables the relative costs between the technologies needed for new transmission circuits to be defined. That way the argument is focused on the environmental, rather than economic aspects.
We have identified what the environmental impacts may be, but it is up to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) to determine costs in that regard.
Some of the questioning this afternoon was based around the cost difference between underground and overhead cabling.
How will this report be utilised moving forward? What will be the next stage?
The IPC are the ones who will use this to effectively look at the relative costs of the impact of a new circuit.
National Grid will be able to use the report too, in order to show that they are being cost-effective and keeping the cost of electricity down for the consumer.
However, it is up to the IPC to determine if the environmental considerations outweigh the additional costs to the consumer. It is, of course, the consumer who ends up paying if underground cables are used, for example.
The figure that was being used at the parliamentary reception, although this is not an official figure included in the report, was that it would cost about £7 extra per year for every consumer's bill over the next 40 years if all the new circuits that have been proposed were undergrounded.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology released the Electricity Transmission Costing Study on Tuesday 31st January.