A renewables ready region for the North East?

Mar 20 2008 By The Journal

A THRIVING renewable energy connection business has won a contract that could help develop the UK’s first ‘renewables ready region’. Econnect, based in Hexham, Northumberland, has been awarded the contract by regional development agency One NorthEast to complete a feasibility study based around connecting small to medium-sized renewable energy technologies on to the existing electricity national grid network.

The contract could potentially free the way for community generation schemes to connect to the grid without the need for expensive cable upgrades, or digging up roads.

It could also lead to North East England becoming a net exporter of renewable energy across the UK and potentially into Europe.

The feasibility study to be carried out by Econnect already has the support of network operator CE Electric, which is keen to investigate possibilities for increasing the amount of green community energy distributed by its existing networks.

Mark Pearson, business strategy manager at One NorthEast, said: “Energy and environment is one of the three pillars for generating economic growth in the North East. We are very excited by the opportunities around distributed and community-based energy and are keen to deepen our understanding.

“This research project will investigate how we can economically connect small to medium-sized energy generation to the electricity grid without the need for major upgrades. This includes hydro, wind turbines, solar power, landfill gas, and other low carbon technologies.

“We look forward to the completion of the work by Econnect as part of our wider strategy moving towards the region being at the forefront of development of a low carbon economy.”

Guy Nicholson, chief executive at Econnect, is delighted at being awarded the contract and sees massive potential for the Renewables Ready Region. “If you’re building a large wind farm of a dozen turbines or so, it’s economical to incorporate the cost of digging new cables and building substations etc, but if you’re a landowner looking to generate your own energy and export excess energy, then the grid connection can prove to be a massive barrier,” he said.

“If we could get to the stage where generators could simply plug into existing networks without the need for cable upgrades and new substations, we could very easily become a focal point of renewable energy in the country.”

Almost 30 expressions of interest were received by One NorthEast and seven tenders were eventually submitted. Econnect will also work closely with North Energy on a number of key aspects of the project, including planning. For further information on Econnect, visit www.econnect.com