IN her column “One-way electricity highway represents another lost future for Scotland” (Aug 15), Lesley Riddoch asks the question “What do I know?” When it comes to the technical issues and economics of generating and transmitting electricity, the answer seems to be “very little indeed”. The piece contains a number of fundamental errors and misunderstandings.
• The suggestion that selling electricity through an inter-connecter between Peterhead and Yorkshire is “blatant theft” is preposterous. The electricity is owned by the companies that invested in building and operating the plant that generated it; they have every right to sell it to whoever they wish. The Scottish Government can’t just decide to take electricity from these companies without paying and use it to heat houses, produce fertiliser and the various other speculative ideas floated.
READ MORE: Energy experts give verdict on 'super highway' between Scotland and England
• While Scotland has an excess of wind-generated electricity when the wind is blowing, the extent to which that can be stored is very limited. When the wind is not blowing, Scotland has insufficient generating capacity to meet its needs, so importing power south to north using the inter-connector will be vitally important, particularly after Torness Power Station (which has sufficient capacity to provide almost a quarter of the electricity Scotland uses) is decommissioned in 2028.
• During periods when wind-generated electricity exceeds the capacity of the grid, constraint payments are made to wind farm operators to switch off. These payments are necessary to secure investment in wind farms and they are built into the tariffs customers pay. By providing access to a market, the inter-connector will allow more electricity to be generated by wind and a reduce the amount spent on constraint payments, both of which will reduce the overall price.
• The inter-connector requires a connection to the grid in the south and, with suitable infrastructure available there, Drax is a convenient place to make that connection. It is almost comical to suggest that any energy transferred north would have been generated solely at Drax.
READ MORE: 'Rip off' warning over link to take Scottish energy to England
• Finally, an inter-connector transfers DC power while the high-voltage cables making up the National Grid transfer AC power. While the cost of DC cables is lower than that for AC, it requires much more extensive and complex equipment at each end to convert between the two forms of power. As a result, a DC inter-connecter becomes more economic than AC transmission when the length of the cable (without intermediate connections) exceeds around 400 miles. Rather than some ridiculous conspiracy to impose overhead lines on Scotland, there are sound technical reasons for the approach adopted.
The article is little more than an ill-informed attempt to sow a grievance and does not inform or contribute to a legitimate debate about energy policy and pricing.
George Rennie
Inverness
WHY on Earth is our Scottish Government wasting money paying for wild animals to be killed (Scottish Government to fund deer culls, Aug 16) when natural predators could correct population imbalances absolutely free?
Apparently “only qualified and eligible deer stalkers” will receive payments for killing additional deer.
Surely the most eligible and fully qualified deer stalkers would be the four-legged variety: the wolf and the Eurasian lynx. The reintroduction of these lost but vitally important apex predators would have a transformational effect on the entire eco-system of the Highlands at a time when, to quote Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie, “we know that Scotland is facing a nature loss crisis.”
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Professional deer stalkers will almost certainly have the transferable skills requisite to earn a livelihood as eco-safari/educational guides. Predator reintroduction should involve no job losses.
The reintroduction of wolves in the Cairngorm National Park and the West Highlands, where packs would be free to roam and predate on red as well as roe deer, would have little, if any, impact on agriculture. The lynx, which is more solitary by nature, could roam the surrounding woodlands and glens, posing no threat whatsoever to the human population. It would prey on rabbits as well as roe deer.
I’m afraid I find nothing innovative in the NatureScot deer culling pilot schemes. It’s just yet more of the tired old approach of managing deer populations with the gun and the bullet.
READ MORE: Alison Phipps: Inside the Orkney dig evoking questions and memories of Scotland past
If, on the other hand, the Scottish Government would like to employ a truly innovative approach to managing deer population it should undertake the reintroduction of our lost apex predators.
Feasibility studies have already proved that the majority of the public would welcome such moves. Local people (apart from possibly a handful of disgruntled farmers) would overwhelmingly support the return of lynx and wolves, and the benefit for visitors and the tourist industry would be a huge boost to the economy.
Rhodri Griffiths
Alford
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