East Suffolk Council
Nautilus Interconnector frustration
Cllr Tom Daly, East Suffolk Council’s Cabinet Member for Energy and Climate Change has expressed his anger and disappointment having learned that the Nautilus Interconnector proposal - proposed by National Grid Ventures and connecting the UK with Belgium, which had been looking to connect at the Isle of Grain in the Thames Estuary - is possibly coming back to East Suffolk to be connected at Friston.
Cllr Daly said: “This is yet another huge and incongruous industrial development in our precious countryside to be seen alongside all the other proposals this community is being swamped by. Ofgem – the energy regulator – issued a press release in March 2024, where it was announced that it did not approve the Isle of Grain proposal because the constraint costs. Whilst acknowledging that decision, I never anticipated that Friston would come back on the table.
“Therefore, I was incredibly frustrated to learn on 15 July 2024 that Ofgem had announced that it is consulting on the possibility of Nautilus connecting once again at Friston within East Suffolk. The justification presented for this change in tack includes there being sufficient capacity in the electricity system at Friston meaning that the cost of connecting Nautilus here is lower than at the Isle of Grain as there are fewer reinforcements and upgrades needed.
“This makes it very clear that whilst cost is an important factor, it trumps the significant environmental, community and social harm the development would produce. It highlights the lack of a coordinated approach to upgrading our energy systems and pays lip service to the diligent work of the Council and its communities making clear why this proposal is not acceptable.”
“It is therefore clear that there is a huge disconnect between the planning process and the financial influences steering connection offers, with costs to the end-consumer carrying more weight in the decision-making process than the identified planning constraints raised in consultation for a proposed connection location. ESC also remains disappointed that offshore connection options are not being fully explored due to cost/targets, resulting in a significant amount of additional impact being imposed on the local communities within East Suffolk, many of whom are already fighting a barrage of development which will heavily impact their local communities for generations to come.
“The initial planning consent for the National Grid substation at Friston was to support Scottish Power's EA1N and EA2 projects alone not Sealink, Lionlink and now Nautilus. This evident lack of strategy and forward planning are not acceptable. Ofgem is excluding the huge social, environmental, community, economic impacts of imposing, (without consultation or any assessment of cumulative impacts) an energy superhub onto our countryside. Any proper cost/benefit analysis should quantify these impacts. East Suffolk countryside and communities are not the cheap option.
“Ofgem must accept the full costs of production, not pass these costs onto the communities and environment of East Suffolk. This means allowing Nautilus to proceed to the Isle of Grain, or better to take a strategic view whereby all these projects converging on one village are viewed as enough critical mass to justify offshore development and all the downstream cost efficiencies this would bring into play.
“We will be responding to the consultation in the strongest possible terms and will be seeking to meet with the new Suffolk Coastal MP, Jenny Riddell-Carpenter and government officials to once again press the case for a change in approach, to look for coordination and the development of other approaches , including an off shore ring main to enable the country to decarbonise whilst impacting the least harm possible on all communities and the precious areas in East Suffolk and along the east coast.”