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Book Yaxley Village Hall directly through the website
Click on the following https://yaxleysuffolkvillagehall.co.uk/
Free Insulation upgrades in £2m Mid Suffolk scheme available for private sector homes. (See poster on left)
We are pleased to announce that Suffolk’s Public Sector Leaders have teamed up with Travis Perkins to offer Suffolk residents a great deal on loft insulation. Not only can you buy loft insulation at a much reduced price, but you can also claim a further 50% discount (up to a maximum of £200) towards the final bill, and delivery is free! Whether you are topping up or installing from scratch, you can make great financial (and carbon!) savings.
Please share this link for the online order form so that residents in your community can benefit from this grant: Fill out the online order form
Please also see other grants available through this link: Grants – Green Suffolk
Mid Suffolk Council has launched a new £2million initiative which could see hundreds of people claim a free home insulation upgrade.
The Cosy Home installation including funding for loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and draft proofing works to make more private sector homes in the Mid Suffolk district more efficient, reduce their carbon emissions and lower energy bills for residents.
The district council is encouraging any resident that meets the criteria to express an interest, while funds last.
For more information visit: https://www.midsuffolk.gov.uk/web/mid-suffolk/w/mid-suffolk-cosy-homes
Suffolk Constabulary Update (see item on left)
Progress Power Update (see item on the left)
We’re getting in touch with an update on the essential work that National Grid is carrying out to refurbish the existing 400, 000 volt overhead between Bramford substation in Suffolk and Norwich substation in Norfolk.
Our programme to replace the fittings and wires between the existing 198 pylons along the 62 kilometre transmission line started in spring 2022, with completion originally expected by December 2023. These essential refurbishment works including reinstatement are now expected to be complete by summer 2024.
Network planning
We’re always working hard to maintain and improve our network to ensure we operate a safe and reliable electricity system now and in the future. For our engineers to carry out this refurbishment work safely, we need to switch off the electricity running through the wires.
To ensure we maintain and balance electricity demand across the UK network, one of the late 2023 outage dates for carrying out this refurbishment needed to be rescheduled. We now expect all work on the pylons to be complete by spring, with reinstatement along the 62 kilometre route finalised by summer 2024.
How will these works affect local communities
Our principal contractor, Balfour Beatty, is carrying out the work to replace the fittings and wires. Our working hours are between 7:30am to 6pm Monday to Sunday.
Residents will see some activity on or near the overhead lines and pylons. When working near some roads and public footpaths, we need to close them for short periods. This is to keep the public and our staff safe.
Our contractors put up advance notice signs to let local communities know of any restrictions on roads and rights of way. We are sorry for the inconvenience caused during the short-term closures. We are working closely with Balfour Beatty to reduce local disruption and to remove temporary closures as quickly as possible.
Thank you from everyone working on the refurbishment project for your patience as we continue our work to upgrade our existing electricity transmission network in East Anglia.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact our community relations team on 0800 046 3857 or email at BNReurbishment@nationalgrid.com.
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Email from the Electricity System Operator - East Anglia Study
Dear Councillor,
The ESO is writing to provide communities with an update on our study into electricity network infrastructure in East Anglia.
This study will begin shortly, after a government decision on funding the continued development of offshore coordination between certain offshore wind farms and interconnectors is made. This is because any new offshore coordination may change the underlying needs case for planned onshore electricity network infrastructure in the region.
We will independently assess the different ways the electricity being generated can be transported, once it has landed, to where it is needed. Central to this is ensuring there are opportunities for local representatives to input their views. We are planning on hosting series of discussions across the region to (1) allow the ESO to provide more information on our assessment; and (2) allow for attendees to provide the views and thoughts of those they represent.
We very much look forward to hearing these views and ensuring that our assessment provides clear and independently prepared options of how this much needed renewable energy can connect to, and be transported along, the electricity system in the most cost-effective and holistic way.
Who is the Electricity System Operator and what do they do?
As the Electricity System Operator for Great Britain, it’s our job to move high-voltage electricity around the electricity grid. Our control room does this second by second to ensure that the right amount of electricity is where it’s needed, when it’s needed, across Great Britain 24/7, 365 days a year.
We are a legally separate organisation within the National Grid group. In 2024, we will transition into the Independent System Operator and Planner – a new organisation which will be owned by Government and wholly independent. The ESO will be at the heart of this new organisation and will take on a strategic network planning role across electricity and gas.
Our role in electricity network planning
We don’t generate or sell electricity – that’s down to other companies. We also do not own or develop the infrastructure the electricity travels through. One of our key responsibilities is to produce high level network options assessments and put forward reinforcement recommendations for other companies to take forward and build. We currently do this GB wide for onshore and offshore electricity transmission infrastructure.
We work closely with a wide variety of stakeholders and bodies to examine a whole range of different technical and engineering solutions to ensure electricity can get where it is needed when it is needed. This is all with the aim of ensuring our energy system can fully decarbonise by 2035 in a way that is reliable, affordable, and fair to all.
Currently, it is up to GB’s Transmission Owners (TOs), offshore wind and interconnector developers to work through the exact specifications of required network infrastructure, consult with local communities and make decisions on what to build.
The study into electricity network infrastructure in East Anglia that the ESO will shortly be conducting will be taken into consideration by National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET, the Transmission Owner) when deciding how best to deliver the required reinforcement and increased transmission capacity in the region.
Offshore Transmission Network Review and voluntary offshore coordination
The Offshore Transmission Network Review was launched by the Government in July 2020. The review is designed to ensure transmission connections for offshore wind generation are designed and delivered in the most appropriate way. The review considers the United Kingdom’s targets for offshore wind necessary to achieve net zero whilst balancing environmental, social and economic costs.
The UK Government announced in July 20221 that five projects in East Anglia: Sea Link (National Grid Electricity Transmission), EuroLink and Nautilus interconnectors (National Grid Ventures) and the North Falls and Five Estuaries offshore windfarms, had confirmed their commitment to exploring coordinated network designs.
To support this review, the government may issue grant payments for certain projects2 to develop voluntary offshore coordination options alongside their current network connections, through the Offshore Coordination Support Scheme (OCSS)3. The decision on whether to provide grant payments to relevant developers is currently with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero4.
It is important to note that a decision from government to grant OCSS funding will not result in immediate or automatic changes to existing, signed connection agreements between ESO and offshore wind projects. If an option is progressed, in scope developers will take approximately 18 months to two years to explore this coordination further, alongside their existing connection agreements.
Why is the ESO conducting this study in East Anglia?
Any new options (coordination of connections) being considered by developers within the OCSS scheme may change some of the underlying power flows and therefore the need for transmission reinforcements in East Anglia. Our study will examine whether the needs case has changed, after the outcome of the Government’s OCSS is known.
Scope and method of the assessment
For the avoidance of doubt, the study will not re-assess the OCSS outcome. Our study will assess ways electricity can be transported from where it lands (from the relevant in scope windfarms and interconnectors) to where it is needed. Please see our terms of reference for further information on this.
The ESO will confirm the scope of the study once the outcome of the OCSS is known. If any new coordination of connections arises from the OCSS, then we will assess options for the reinforcement of the transmission network, including a Norwich to Tilbury circuit (formerly known as East Anglia Green) and potential alternate options (including options routed offshore).
We will assess different options, onshore and offshore, utilising the same criteria as the Holistic Network Design5. These metrics are:
o cost to the consumer, o deliverability and operability, o impact on the environment and o impact on local communities.
Similar to previous studies we have conducted such as the Holistic Network Design, we will be working closely with two independent specialist consultancies on this assessment.
Engagement plan
We will be running a series of discussions with elected representatives and amenity groups across East Anglia once our study has begun - we very much look forward to hearing insights from these representatives.
These meetings will be an opportunity to understand our scope of work, assessment criteria and to hear attendees’ thoughts and views on the different options we are assessing.
This assessment is not part of a statutory consultation. It is also separate to National Grid Electricity Transmission’s (NGET’s) ongoing consultation on Norwich to Tilbury (formally known as East Anglia Green).
How does the outcome of this study align with National Grid Electricity Transmission’s ongoing consultation for their proposed Norwich to Tilbury Project?
The ESO will produce a final report that will be made publicly available for interested parties. This report will then be considered by National Grid Electricity Transmission as part of their ongoing development of the Norwich to Tilbury project ahead of the statutory consultation scheduled for 2024.
We would like to finish by thanking all of those who have taken an interest in this critical work. If you would like more information on this assessment, please visit the Electricity System Operator website.
Kind regards,
East Anglia Study Team
ESO
Update on the Pylons from Sir Bernard Jenkin MP
(see also Parish Council briefing on the left)
Dear residents
You are receiving this email as one of the many hundreds of concerned residents of Harwich and North Essex who have contacted me about various aspects of the Norwich to Tilbury pylon proposals. As ever, I am sorry for the impersonal nature of this update but I want to keep residents informed on my work on the pylons issue. I continue to be inundated with emails, not just from the many of you who have heard from me before on this issue, but also from many new correspondents less aware of my previous campaigning against the pylons.
The House of Commons has risen for the Summer Recess but there is no conclusion to the most significant disagreement I have ever seen between the Conservative MPs in Essex and wider East Anglia, and the Conservative Government over the issue of the pylons.
Earlier this month, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero floated the proposal that planning guidance for the national grid should be changed to speed things up. This is both chilling but also evidence of the effectiveness of the pylons campaign, which has been so ably coordinated by Rosie Pearson.
I had hoped for a meeting of the Offset MPs with the Secretary of State before we rose for the recess and while this was his aspiration, Mr Shapps has been unable to deliver and is now promising a meeting in September. However, there are other developments to report.
On Wednesday, Offset MPs met the Chief Executive of Ofgem, which is the regulator that controls investment in the National Grid. Ironically, Philip Brearley’s previous job was Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee, which is the independent watchdog body monitoring the Governments progress towards Net Zero by 2050.
None of us in that meeting disagrees with that objective. But we made plane that the now-revised Norwich to Tilbury proposals are most likely to delay Net Zero achievement because there is so much despair and anger across the whole region. There will be unlimited money for court challenges and judicial review, and it is not possible to quantify how much this will delay this much needed investment.
Offset has been arguing that the off-shore options, which have only scantily been assessed so far are likely to prove much easier to implement and therefor quicker, and also better value in the longer-term. This is because they rep[lace a piecemeal approach with a coherent strategy to connect offshore windfarms with off-shore undersea continental interconnectors. They also take electricity generated offshore straight down to the Thames Estuary, which futureproofs the system for further investment. A strategic approach would also take account of the proposed hydrogen hub at Harwich-Felixstowe (which requires substantial electricity supplies for hydrogen generation) and the possibility of new generating capacity at Bradwell, which is simply not anywhere in National Grid’s present plans.
We all agreed that the September meeting with the Secretary of State should be a round table of all the parties- National Grid, the electricity supply operator, the windfarm investors, Ofgem, DESNZ, Offset MPs, and chaired by the Secretary of State. This has led me to suggest to Grant Shapps that he needs to do far more than just revise the planning guidance. The department has recently appointed an experienced National Grid engineer, Nick Winser. I hope he will also be at our September meeting. We need to understand that the climate crisis is an emergency, like Covid. Just as we had a vaccine taskforce to cut through the bureaucracy to develop the vaccines we needed, the recent years have proved we need a National Grid taskforce to accelerate the massive investment required in order to replace carbon-generated electricity generation with green alternatives. This is also necessary or energy security, so that we also pay less for electricity imports.
But there has been another minor bombshell. Vattenfall is a Swedish company which was planning a massive investment in North Sea wind, until this week. They have now put their plans on hold. This certainly begs the question: is Norwich to tilbury now necessary in its present form at all? Does this give us a breathing space to develop the offshore alternatives that will mean our voters can support the Government’s Net Zero proposals?
I will keep on the case and update you all again when the various aspects of this campaign progress. For now, I wish you all a good summer and hope you find some serenity outside in our wonderful Essex countryside.
Best wishes
Yours
Bernard
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 4029
National Grid Norwich-Tilbury consultation (See items on left)
Progress Power Piling Tests (See on Left)
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DOG WALKERS
Please remember that the play area and green is a dog free zone and should not be used as a cut through to the field behind.
We are very lucky in Yaxley that we have lots of approved paths where dogs are welcome and encourage you to use these.
In addition, the bin in the play area is not designated for dog waste. This bin is emptied by Parish Councillors and is not monitored.
Thank you for your understandi
Final Independent Living Service (See poster on left)
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