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Wind industry says massive investment plans held up by grid access blockages

October 22, 2008

Wind industry leaders gathering in London at their annual conference today called on the Government to speed up access to the national grid so that £50 billion of private infrastructure investment could be unleashed over the next 10 years.

With Energy Minister Mike O'Brien addressing the conference delegates heard that the current regulatory regime, headed by Ofgem is limiting the national grid and wind energy companies investing to upgrade the network.

O'Brien had earlier declared that "we need investment in our grid infrastructure to reinforce and expand the existing grid network - both onshore and offshore"

Describing the wind industry as "ready for take-off" O'Brien added that energy infrastructure investment could help lift the economy out of its current downturn. "We need to do what we can to bring forward energy projects to stimulate the economy" he said.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg and Conservative Shadow Energy Minister Charles Hendry also addressed the conference, and both called on the Government to speed up grid connection for renewables.

Clegg said "The existing grid is inefficient and old fashioned and at current capacity it won't meet future demand".

Hendry said "We accept the need for change to the current system whereby National Grid must connect applications in the order in which they have been made. There should be some recognition in the system of whether planning consent has been given and the speed at which it can move ahead".

Following the speeches, BWEA Chairman Adam Bruce added:

"The wind energy industry is pleased that all three political parties are agreed on the need for investment in the grid and that Mike O'Brien indicated that the Government is considering bringing forward energy projects to stimulate the economy.

"However, just as important as investment is strategic direction for the renewal of the grid.

"The wind energy industry looks to the Government to provide clear guidance to Ofgem to facilitate long-term investment in time to reach our 2020 target, and for Ofgem to approve pro-active, strategic plans to upgrade and expand the grid network, rather than waiting for each individual powerline extension to be approved in the current, ad hoc manner."


For more information, contact:
Charles Anglin, BWEA Director of Communications, on 020 7689 1966 / 07956 859 749 or charles@bwea.com
Nick Medic, BWEA Communications Manager, 0207 689 1935 / 07977 019 933 or nick@bwea.com

Notes to Editors

  • The British Wind Energy Association is the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries. Formed in 1978, and with 446 corporate members, BWEA is the leading renewable energy trade association in the UK. Wind has been the world's fastest growing renewable energy source for the last seven years, and this trend is expected to continue with falling costs of wind energy and the urgent international need to tackle CO2 emissions to prevent climate change.
  • Much of the national grid network is over 40 years old, with 60% needing to be upgraded or replaced over the next 5-10 years. In order to integrate the new decentralised energy sources such as wind experts estimate that the grid's capacity will need to grow from 75GW today to 120GW within a decade. Under the current regime, as a private monopoly, National Grid's investment plans are overseen by Ofgem. Ofgem insists that the cost of each new connection is underwritten by the energy company that wants access to the grid. This means that investment is piece-meal and ad-hoc and often only carried out on like for like basis.
  • BWEA released figures this week showing that the UK had passed the historic landmark of 3GW of installed wind capacity, enough to power 1.7million homes, making it 5th in the world in terms of installed wind. As well as passing Denmark as the largest generator of offshore wind in the world.
  • BWEA is holding its 30th anniversary conference at the ExCel Centre in Docklands over 3 days from October 21-23.