LETTERS – What are the other options?

John Hayes is leading a lobby against the creation of a new pylon route through the district.
Well, OK, but; those involved should go further than protest: they should reveal the alternative they have in mind.
The National Grid is already on the brink of inadequacy in relation to the new modes of power generation – wind and sun – now coming into use, because the power generated by them is unpredictable in its timing and its location.
That is, the Grid does not know until a late stage whereabouts in the country the day’s power supply will be coming from.
As a consequence, the traditional Grid, based on predictable knowledge of which conventional power stations would be in operation, does not have the reserve capacity to cope with the new unpredictability.
At the same time we are moving into a period, with electric cars and increasing use of electronic techniques, when our demand for electric power will be increasing very significantly. If the Grid is not soon reinforced, we’d all better get used to the idea of power cuts as a daily experience.
I don’t know what the lobbyists have in mind as an alternative to the proposal they object to. Just don’t do it? Put it across someone else’s district? Bury it underground? (That last one would be technically very difficult and very expensive to do, because the Grid has to operate at very, very high voltage to keep its cost within reason).
We compromise between our aesthetic tastes and our convenience in living. The fen landscape has already been visually diminished by the massive post-WW2 building operations, which have also reduced the food growing capacity of the arable area.
Pylon routes do less of the latter, but let’s hear what the lobbyists propose. Who knows? They may have worthwhile proposals. Over to you, Sir John.

John Tippler
Spalding