EirGrid: no decision made yet on future of Grid West

A report this weekend in the Sunday Business Post stated that EirGrid was scrapping its plans to build a €240m overhead power line from north Mayo to Flagford, Co Roscommon.

The paper said the turnabout followed An Bord Pleanála's decision to approve a reduced number of wind turbines on a 5,000ha site near Bellacorick in Co Mayo. The planning board approved 61 turbines, a reduction from the original proposal of 112 wind turbines.

The newspaper report said the reduced number of wind turbines, which will have a maximum electricity generating capacity of 172MW, will make it possible for the existing electricity grid to carry the power from the wind farm, thus cancelling the need for the 400kV overhead power line, known as Grid West.

Response

Responding to the newspaper's claim that EirGrid has scrapped its plans for the overhead lines, a spokesperson for the company told the Irish Farmers Journal that the state-owned company has not yet made a decision on how it will proceed with the project.

"We haven't made any decision on how the project will proceed, but we have made a commitment to transport electricity in that part of the country to the grid from the wind farm," the spokesperson said.

Once EirGrid has an update on the direction of the project, this will be communicated to stakeholders in the area

"Therefore the question for us, once we get some clarity from the wind farm developers on how much electricity they plan to generate, is whether the power will be carried via an 400kV overhead line, a lower voltage 220kV underground line, or whether it can be carried by the existing 110kV lines in the area."

The spokesperson added that once EirGrid has an update on the direction of the project, this will be communicated to stakeholders in the area.

Grid West project

Work on the Grid West project, including a planning application, has been paused since before Christmas 2015 while EirGrid awaited the planning board's decision on the wind farm near Bellacorick.

The project was launched in May 2012 and since then EirGrid has completed five rounds of public consultation and hosted 27 open days with community groups and local stakeholders.

In February 2015 EirGrid provided its report on the Grid West project to a Government-appointed independent expert panel.

In April the panel came back to say it was satisfied that EirGrid carried out and completed the report in full accordance with the terms of reference for the report. Then in July 2015 EirGrid published the details of underground and overhead options for the project, as outlined in its report to the government-appointed panel.

The Grid West report set out the technical, environmental and cost aspects of three technology options:

Local reaction

Local opposition to the Grid West project has been strong from the beginning of the process, with opposition mainly directed at the 400kV overhead line option.

Even in mid-2014 when EirGrid proposed an underground option for Grid West, locals feared that the proposal would be dismissed purely on cost grounds.

And later in 2014 a report which reviewed EirGrid's community consultation process found that EirGrid had not listened to or genuinely engaged with the rural community.

No one could be comfortable continuing to farm or bring up families in the shadow of these pylons with what we now know

Commenting on EirGrid's latest decision to pause the project while it assesses the impact of An Bord Pleanála's decision, Raymond Horkan, a suckler farmer from Killasser, Co Mayo and a member of the Underground Gridwest and Western Pylon Pressure group, said: "From the outset, together with farmers from our locality as well as those along the entirety of the route, we were totally opposed to the overhead 400KV powerline, particularly when there is a viable alternative in undergrounding.

"No one could be comfortable continuing to farm or bring up families in the shadow of these pylons with what we now know," he continued.

"The emerging research points to a link between increased risks of childhood leukaemia and extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields of the sort produced by Grid West, as well as many other negative consequences to tourism, property devaluation and animals, among many others. Remember that EirGrid chairman John O’Connor admitted before an Oireachtas committee that he 'would not like to live close to a pylon' - so why should we?

"The sign refusing EirGrid permission to enter our land is still at the bottom of the road and it will stay there until this project is scrapped in its original format entirely," Horkan added.

Horkan also commented on the sudden departure of Grid West project manager, Sean Meagher, without notification to the local community, and the closure of EirGrid regional offices in Carrick-on-Shannon and Ballina.

EirGrid responded to this by saying that they will soon be appointing another project manager but in the meantime they have both an agricultural liaison officer and community liaison officer in the area.

The spokesperson for the company also said that EirGrid has opened a new regional office in Castlebar to compensate for the office closures in Carrick-on-Shannon and Ballina.

"We are are focusing on regional offices now rather than project specific offices," the spokesperson said.

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