TEC Register update: new 460MW Long Stratton Solar Farm and "North Anglia Connection Node"
Today's new additions to the TEC Register will do nothing to quell fears around the Norwich to Tilbury Pylon proposals, with a connection offer granted to Noventum - Long Stratton.
This evening, 27 August, we have seen new additions to the TEC Register in the Long Stratton area in Norfolk. First, we have a connection offer granted to Noventum - Long Stratton, a new 460MW solar farm. Using the recently approved Sunnica solar farm as a benchmark, we can safely say that this will be in the region of 2,000 acres. Of similar interest is the connection site, with the first appearance of the “North Anglia Connection Node A 400kv”.
The Norwich to Tilbury Pylon proposals already include an East Anglia 400kv Connection Node (EACN), into which the North Falls and Five Estuaries Wind Farms, alongside the Tarchon interconnector, are due to connect in Essex. However, I’ve yet to see mention of a North Anglia Connection Node, with - please note - the suffix A! Leaving open, of course, when B or indeed C might appear. We need to press National Grid, with some urgency, on where precisely this new North Anglia Connection Node will be but given the location of the proposed solar farm is Long Stratton, one can reasonably assume it will be within 5, to a very maximum of 10, miles from there. There are plans to expand the Norwich Main Substation to the east and west, which I recently wrote about Ofgem planning to accelerate, but the name doesn’t line up at all. Therefore, we can reasonably assume this is the first of one or more brand new connection points in the “North Anglia” area.
Earlier in the year, I met with a solar developer - who I will not name - and, to their credit, their preferred process of constraints led site selection was far better than we experienced with Sunnica. However, when discussing where, in the broadest sense, they were looking in our region, their search corridor aligned quite precisely with the proposed Norwich to Tilbury route. I queried this and they stated, as we of course know too, there will be redundant capacity on the Norwich to Tilbury line and National Grid will want to sell that capacity. Is this new Connection Node the first in what will be several steps of National Grid cashing in on that capacity?
In terms of Noventum and their Long Stratton proposals, these will be very much in their infancy given they’ve a connection offer of October 2034. The recently consented Sunnica scheme has a connection offer of 2027, so this project is some 7 years behind that. We first had discussion of the Sunnica scheme in public in around 2019, so we are unlikely to see lines on maps for 12 months. Noventum is emerging as a major player in the renewables sector, with multiple schemes on the TEC Register including one at Biggleswade which I recently highlighted. A lot more detail about Noventum can be found on their website.
The announcement of many more vast solar schemes being given connection offers is inevitable, particularly in the context of Ed Miliband’s 2030 decarbonisation target. However, what this proposed scheme at Long Stratton and the new North Anglia Connection Node highlight once again is the glaring absence of any true spatial planning and joined up thinking around energy generation in the UK. As I’ve repeatedly said, communities need and deserve clarity and the iterative and opaque way that schemes emerge, with connection offers granted prior to any consultation, does nothing to build trust in a just energy transition.
In Wales one of the Celtic Sea wind farms will connect to South Wales Connection Node C. No fixed location for it yet other than somewhere between Baglan Bay and the 400 kV “foot of the valleys” line. As yet there has been no mention of nodes A or B. It’s all very secretive