Memorandum submitted by the Town and Country
Planning Association
1. ABOUT THE
TCPA
The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA)
is an independent charity working to improve the art and science
of town and country planning. Representing the views of our membership
organisations and individuals from local authorities, planning
academics and practitioners under the policy guidance of the Policy
Council, the TCPA puts social justice and the environment at the
heart of policy debate and inspires government, industry and campaigners
to take a fresh perspective on major issues, including planning
policy, housing, regeneration and climate change. Our objectives
are to:
The TCPA vision is for clean, safe, low carbon
energy generated more closely to the communities and households
it serves. A decentralised energy system will ensure less waste,
greater efficiency, more direct local benefits from energy installations,
and stronger incentives to employ generation methods benign in
their impacts on people and the environment. A sustainable future
of this kind, that integrates people's needs with those of the
environment, has consistently been the TCPA's mission.
This response was drafted without the benefit
of a full and proper consideration by the TCPA Policy Council.
The function of the Policy Council is to advise the trustees and
the policy team regarding the policy stance. It represents the
views of our membership organisations and individuals from local
authorities, planning academics and practitioners. Therefore this
response is subject to further amendment following discussion
and consideration by the full TCPA Policy Council.
2. SUMMARY OF
TCPA RESPONSE
The TCPA welcome the Energy and Climate Change
Committee's forthcoming inquiry into the future of Britain's electricity
networks at this critical junction in the development of our energy
infrastructure. Britain's networks will need to adapt in response
to future changes in the generation mix.
The UK's energy policy needs to address four long-term
strategic goals:
— Place the UK on a path to cut CO2 emissions
by some 80 per cent by 2050, with real progress by 2020, as set
out in the Climate Change Act 2008.
— Maintain reliable and secure energy supplies.
— Promote competitive markets in the UK
and beyond, helping to raise the rate of sustainable economic
growth and to improve our productivity.
— Ensure that every home is adequately
and affordably heated.
The UK faces a number of major decisions in
relation to the investment needed to address the security and
sustainability of our energy supplies. With shrinking reserves
of North Sea gas and oil and the decline in our coal industry,
the UK is now a net importer of energy. In addition, the large
coal and nuclear power stations which form the baseload capacity
for the national grid are reaching the end of their operational
lives.
Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels will require
a fundamental change in how we generate and supply energy, with
a rapid transition to large scale renewables and decentralised
forms of heat and power generation based on low carbon, zero carbon
and carbon neutral technologies. Renewable forms of energy will
need to be harnessed, based on zero carbon "flow" resources,
such as the sun, the wind and the sea, and "carbon neutral"
resource cycles, such as organic waste or plant-based biofuels.
These will need to be complemented by more efficient forms of
generation and distribution based on low carbon technologies such
as combined heat and power (CHP) and district heating networks.
This fundamental change will need to be delivered at a national,
regional and local level, creating new and challenging roles for
central government as well as local authorities, their communities
and their stakeholders.
The TCPA has long called for an integrated national
spatial framework to guide infrastructure projects and set priorities
on investment. Building upon Connecting England, a report by the
TCPA based on a two-year inquiry by the TCPA-appointed Hetherington
Commission, the Association is now working on a framework for
a zero carbon national spatial strategy to the year 2050. In particular,
it will explore how a combination of factors, including energy,
can contribute to a sustainable and desired spatial form of national
development.
The TCPA welcome the concept of a national policy
statement (NPS) on electricity transmission networks, due to be
published for consultation by Government later this year under
the Planning Act 2008. The NPS will help provide a framework for
strategic investment in the grid network as we move towards a
more sustainable new generation mix.
3. TCPA RESPONSES
TO THE
COMMITTEE'S
QUESTIONS
3.1 What should the Government's vision be
for Britain's electricity networks, if it is to meet the EU 2020
renewables target, and longer-term security of energy supply and
climate change goals?
It is essential that we meet the challenge of
reducing our reliance on fossil fuels by improving the sustainability
of large-scale power stations and focusing on the role large scale
renewable energy, such as offshore wind, and smaller scale decentralised
energy generation can play. A step change is needed in how we
generate and supply electricity, making a transition to large
scale renewables and decentralised energy and power based on low
and zero carbon technologies.
A vision for the future of Britain's electricity
network needs to:
— Where possible, relate energy technologies
to local opportunities and requirements.
— Think about technologies and their supply
chains at a range of different scales.
3.2 How do we ensure the regulatory framework
is flexible enough to cope with uncertainty over the future generation
mix?
Development of large capacities of variable
generations, such as wind, in combination with inflexible generation,
such as nuclear and supercritical coal power plants with CCS,
create an operational challenge for the network.
The grid network will require strategic investment
to facilitate new lines and significant upgrades.
3.3 What are the technical, commercial and
regulatory barriers that need to be overcome to ensure sufficient
network capacity is in place to connect a large increase in onshore
renewables, particularly wind power, as well as new nuclear build
in the future? For example issues may include the use of locational
pricing, or the availability of skills.
Offshore electricity transmission is a key building
block of the Government's renewable energy policy. Development
of large capacities of offshore wind will require substantial
grid infrastructure offshore and reinforcement of the onshore
transmission system.
Strategic grid studies are needed and the right commercial
and regulatory arrangements must be put in place to ensure delivery
of offshore wind if the UK is to meet increased proportion of
its energy use provided from renewables to 15% by 2020. The TCPA
believe that in order to meet this target, we must build more
offshore transmission capacity faster.
Under the Planning Act 2008 the Government will
produce a national policy statement (NPS) on electricity transmission
networks for the first time. The NPS, due to be published for
consultation later this year, will be the primary consideration
in deciding applications for new high voltage electricity lines
either above or below ground and on the sea bed for offshore renewable
energy.
The NPS is expected to set out how much additional
infrastructure is needed in England and Wales, and possibly also
the broad locations where new lines may be routed which will help
provide a national framework for energy transmission. Given the
visual sensitivities to overhead power lines the NPS needs to
marry local sustainability considerations with national energy
need; for example, what impact transmission networks will have
on environmental considerations, including working towards a low
carbon and/or carbon neutral Britain, as well as issues for the
rural landscape.
Delivery of a sustainable energy system will
require a joining up of mechanisms, including: building standards;
building regulations; the planning system; planning for major
infrastructure developments; transport planning and delivery;
and funding. In addition, extensive education and training programmes
should be established so that all actors in the energy planning
and delivery process are aware of what is involved in being proactive
in delivering sustainable energy.
3.4 What are the issues the Government and
regulator must address to establish a cost-effective offshore
transmission regime?
The TCPA will not be commenting on specific
issues in response to this question but call for a joint commitment
between the Government and regulator to ensure the successful
delivery of an offshore transmission regime.
A cost-effective offshore transmission regime is
essential to delivering the efficient, economic, timely and secure
grid connections that are needed to ensure the success of the
offshore wind industry.
3.5 What are the benefits and risks associated
with greater interconnection with other countries, and the proposed
"supergrid"?
Greater interconnection presents benefits and
risks in terms of environmental, economic, social, and political
considerations.
Benefits
— Interconnection between UK and European
grids can provide extra sources of generation—improving
electricity supply and reliability of supply— and assist
competition. — Diversification of energy supply sources
and potential to lower fuel imports.
— Greater interconnection will also enable
the UK to increase our reliability on wind generated electricity
because we can use European suppliers as a back-up for wind power
and call on them during calm days.
Risks/costs
— Dependence on reliability in the interconnected
system. — Obligation to export resources.
— Additional costs of infrastructure for
interconnection.
— Exposure to energy price volatility on
international markets.
3.6 What challenges will higher levels of
embedded and distributed generation create for Britain's electricity
networks?
Britain's traditional electricity network is
a one-way network, designed to carry large flows of electricity
in one direction from large remotely sited power stations.
Until and unless networks evolve from a radial one-way
towards a two-way configuration, they will severely constrain
the opportunities for fundamental change associated with small-scale
decentralised and local generation.
In the short term the TCPA is concerned about
the forecast deficit in base-load energy supply. While reassessments
of energy needs should be made regularly, the process of shifting
to a more efficient decentralized system supplying more efficient
buildings and communities will hopefully lower overall energy
demand. However, any supply deficit must be addressed if we are
to ensure that the poorest and most badly housed in society do
not have to deal with the consequences in terms of soaring fuel
bills.
THE TCPA WILL
NOT BE
ANSWERING THE
FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
3.7 What are the estimated costs of upgrading
our electricity networks, and how will these be met?
3.8 How can the regulatory framework ensure
adequate network investment in light of the current credit crunch
and recession?
3.9 How can the regulatory framework encourage
network operators to innovate, and what is the potential of smart
grid technologies?
3.10 Is there sufficient investment in R&D
and innovation for transmission and distribution technologies?
3.11 What can the UK learn from the experience
of other countries' management of their electricity networks?
4. REFERENCESCommunity
energy: urban planning for a low carbon future
http://www.tcpa.org.uk/press_files/pressreleases_2008/20080331_CEG.pdfTCPA
Policy Statement "Planning for sustainable energy"
http://www.tcpa.org.uk/press_files/pressreleases_2006/20060605-RS-Energy_PS.pdf
Planning for Renewable Energy
http://www.tcpa.org.uk/press_files/pressreleases_2006/20060208-Renewables_Guide.pdf
Sustainable energy "by design"—a
guide for sustainable communities
http://www.tcpa.org.uk/downloads/TCPA_SustEnergy.pdf
Connecting England—A Framework for Regional
Development
http://www.tcpa.org.uk/press_files/pressreleases_2006/CONNECTING_ENGLAND.pdf
March 2009
| 
