EirGrid CEO: we hope for no 'civil disobedience' over N-S interconnector

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at EirGrid’s annual conference in Dublin Castle this week, Fintan Slye, EirGrid’s chief executive, said he hopes the semi-state company will be able to address landowners’ concerns over the North-South interconnector so effectively that there will not be any issues of “civil disobedience” over its construction.

Last December, following An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant planning permission for the southern section of the interconnector, the government’s chief whip Regina Doherty said that she would back “civil disobedience” from objectors to the project.

“We are about to enter into a phase of civil disobedience to hamper the decision made by An Bord Pleanála and I fully support the farmers and landowners in that action,” she said in a statement.

Slye told the Irish Farmers Journal that EirGrid “hopes it will be able to work with people and communities and that there won’t be any issues of civil disobedience”.

We would like to redouble our efforts over this year to work with landowners and communities to address any concerns

The CEO also said he was “delighted” to get the planning permission for the southern element of the interconnector, although he highlighted the fact that the project, which will connect the electricity grids of Ireland and Northern Ireland, still has to go through the planning process in the North. A decision on this planning application is not expected until the end of 2017.

Engagement

“This affords us an opportunity to continue to engage and consult with people on the ground, and address the concerns of community groups and landowners in relation to the N-S interconnector. We would like to redouble our efforts over this year to work with landowners and communities to address those concerns,” Slye said.

If given planning permission in the North, the interconnector will result in the construction of a new 400kV overhead line from a planned substation in Turleenan, Co Tyrone, to a substation in Woodland, Co Meath. The pylons will run through counties Monaghan, Meath and Cavan in the Republic, and counties Armagh and Tyrone in Northern Ireland.

Opposition

Local opposition to the project has been fierce, with people in the affected areas setting up the NorthEast Pylon Pressure Campaign (NEPPC). Led by Padraig O’Reilly, the group describes itself as the “overall representative group for the people of Ireland’s northeast, who advocate that high power electric cables should go underground”.

Electricity consumers would be paying an awful lot of money for something that is not as good

EirGrid has said that undergrounding the N-S interconnector has a number of issues, one of which is cost: “A report commissioned by the Government found that undergrounding would be three times more expensive,” it said. “On top of that, EirGrid has concerns that an underground cable would have to use direct current (DC) technology. This would not provide the same level of reliability and security as an alternating current (AC) overhead line.”

Slye summed it up by saying that “electricity consumers would be paying an awful lot of money for something that is not as good”.

Listen to “CEO of EirGrid on opposition to N-S interconnector” on Spreaker.

Contradiction

NEPPC, however, cites contradictory evidence on the reliability of an undergrounding by referring to the ALEGrO project, which will be the first electricity interconnector between Germany and Belgium. The project will involve a 90km long 380kV underground cable between the two countries, with converter stations transforming AC to DC at one end and DC back to AC on the other end. The CEO of the energy technology company managing the project has said the direct current will assure both “reliability and efficiency in transmitting power independent from specific weather or grid conditions”.

O’Reilly also said that EirGrid’s claim of the extra cost to the consumer of undergrounding is “misleading as the transmission costs on everyone’s electricity bill is a tiny fraction (5%) of the overall bill”.

Compensation

The southern element of the interconnector will affect some 450 landowners directly and in some cases pylons will be less than 50m from people’s homes.

Slye told us that there is a fund of €10m in place to compensate people affected in the south, €4m for community projects along the route and €6m for proximity payments.

The compensation fund is an insult

“There is a sliding scale of compensation payments,” he said. “Residents at 50m away from a 400kV pylon would be getting €30,000 going on a sliding scale down to 200m away. We do recognise that building large scale structure impacts on people and communities, and we’re trying to recognise that and address it.”

Padraig O’Reilly said that the compensation fund is an “insult”.

“There is no compensation for landscape destruction, heritage impact, health risks, etc,” he said. “It is electricity consumers’ money in the first place, being given back to the people who originally paid the money.”

This week Fianna Fáil spokesperson on communications, energy and climate action, Timmy Dooley, said that Fianna Fáil has been “consistent in its calls for the undergrounding of this project and the most recent evidence reveals that it actually strengthens the grid and improves reliability. The financial analysis of underground versus overground needs further investigation”.

However, speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke shortly after his cycling accident, Denis Naughten, Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, said he was “full square” behind the project, but he is also “prepared to listen to what people have to say”.

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