§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many miles of new power lines will be needed in(a) Yorkshire and (b) other parts of England as a result of the planned development of wind farms; and what estimate she has made of the costs. [152450]
§ Mr. TimmsThe plan for remodelling the transmission grid to accommodate new renewable energy generation is currently being prepared by National Grid Transco, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Electricity. They are upgrading the initial estimates prepared for, and published by, the Transmission Issues Working Group in June 2003.(a) There are no planned upgrades of the transmission system required in Yorkshire. (b) For the rest of England there will be a need to upgrade transmission lines but the final plans have not been presented. The costs of adding an additional 6 GW of wind energy in England were estimated at £605 million.