Energy and Climate Change CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Archie D. Speirs (SEV 09)
1.0 Information on Submission
This submission is made on a personal basis by a retired chartered electrical and mechanical engineer, whose lifetime professional experience was gained in the electricity supply industry in the employ of engineering consultants, manufacturers and contractors. This included a heavy involvement in major hydro-electric projects, particularly from the points of view of design and project management of some of the largest export contracts placed with UK contractors in this field, particularly in the USA and New Zealand.
2.0 Submission Content
I wish to restrict my comments in this submission to the following aspects connected with the construction and management of the proposed Cardiff-Weston barrage project:
Management & Ownership of the Project.
Future Advantage to UK Enterprise.
3.0 Management & Ownership of the Project
I feel very strongly that this project should proceed at this time. It has been a project which has been on the drawing board for far too long and studied from every angle imaginable since the 1920’s. I believe that the time has come when it is absolutely right to make the decision to proceed with its construction. It is a wonderful project in concept and I have every confidence that UK plc can and will make a first class job of its execution. The feasibility study projects its life as a nominal 120 years, but it is quite likely that it will be generating full designed output in the year 2220, 200 years after commissioning. Accordingly it is likely that it will prove to be far and away the best investment ever made in an infrastructure project in this country.
In these circumstances it is not at all surprising that private finance is likely to be available to back construction of this project. However, I believe it would be a gross error to proceed on this basis and that it is essential that the development should be carried out under the auspices of a Government Authority specially established to build, own and operate the project throughout its life. It is acknowledged in the studies undertaken that government finance will prove to be significantly cheaper than private finance. This should show up in a greatly reduced construction cost, as for a project with a useful life of up to 200 years it is to be expected that the Exchequer should be able to make project financing available at the extreme low end of the interest scale. As a very major element of the project cost is made up of interest during construction, one would expect that this will prove to be very significantly lower if the project is developed under the auspices of a Government Agency.
In this connection it is worth recalling that in 1943, in the middle of a World War, the Government established The North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board, which went on to develop most of the major hydro-electric projects existing today in Scotland. A similar entity should be formed to build, own and operate the Severn Barrage Project and, indeed, other UK tidal range projects. It might appropriately be named UK Tidal Power. Although the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power is now in the private sector in the UK, this should not be relevant in arriving at a decision to develop major tidal schemes as public power projects. If one looks at the USA, for example, major hydro projects have been constructed and operated by Government agencies there such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the US Army Corps of Engineers, all of which operate alongside private power companies.
Another very cogent reason for advocating development of the Severn Barrage Project by a Government Agency is that it is well known that there are very major environmental problems associated with its construction and operation which will have to be overcome at an early stage of development. It is suggested that these will be satisfactorily dealt with much more expeditiously by a Government Agency than by a private developer. Indeed it would not be unexpected if project development was indefinitely held up on environmental grounds if project development was in the hands of a private sector developer.
4.0 Future Advantage to UK Enterprise
From the point of view of generation of renewable energy, to which the UK Government is committed under the auspices of the European Union, production from the Severn Barrage should prove to be very considerably more benign from the point of view of operation of the national grid than that generated from wind turbines. System Operation will know exactly what input to expect and when from the barrage project, as compared with the opaque variability associated with input from wind projects, which latter may prove to cause dangerous instability in national grid control. Although first power is not expected to be available from the project until the year 2020, it is suggested that the currently planned programme of off-shore wind turbine installation could be drastically cut back. This would be of considerable advantage to the national economy by elimination of this high cost and doubtful long-term reliability element of currently planned renewable energy generation. Furthermore it is expected that the barrage generating units will be designed to have the facility to operate under certain tide conditions as pumps, providing System Operation with an element of pumped storage capability which could be very useful under certain grid control circumstances.
Looking to the future, one can expect that establishment of a government agency to build, own and operate the Severn tidal power barrage will provide the impetus to precede more rapidly with development of other tidal barrages, such as those in the planning stage for the Mersey estuary, the Solway Firth, Dee, Ribble, Wye and Morecambe Bay. Studies on these potential projects are at various stages, but it is judged that the Mersey scheme, for instance, which has the potential for generation of up to 1,000 GWh/year could be operational by the year 2020.
On the international scene, successful development of the Severn Barrage Project by Tidal Power UK could put UK national enterprise in an advantageous position in the pursuit of tidal power development business, led by this specialist developer. Although subject to a similar chequered history to the Severn Barrage Tidal Power Project, the Passamaquoddy Bay Tidal Project at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy in the eastern Gulf of Maine, in the USA could, in the future present major opportunities for developed British expertise in this field, along with other tidal projects in the American and Pacific North West.
November 2012