Necton energy plan set for approval in Norfolk
A final decision will be made in May
The construction of a huge energy plant in the Norfolk countryside is a step closer to getting under way after council officers recommended the scheme be approved.
Proposals for the ‘Greener Grid Park’ in Necton were unveiled last year with the project designed to support the increasing amounts of renewable energy being fed into the National Grid.
The site is located next to the Necton substation, to the east of the A47, and is expected to bolster major schemes like RWE’s offshore windfarms.
Breckland Council officers have now recommended that the development go ahead, meaning that work could soon be under way on the 30-acre site.
The Greener Grid Park, proposed by Norwegian company Statkraft, is aimed at stabilising the grid and providing reliability of power supply in case of disruptions to the electricity system.
Currently, at times of low wind activity, fossil fuel plants are fired up to ensure grid stability.
The development initially raised concerns about its use of battery storage, which can be extremely difficult to extinguish in the event of a fire.
However, Statkraft has now agreed to remove batteries from its plans. Instead, the system will rely on devices known as ‘synchronous compensators’.
It comes as construction work gets under way on a 60km underground cable route which will connect three offshore windfarms to the National Grid at Necton.
German energy firm RWE’s Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone (NOWZ) will consist of Norfolk Vanguard East and West and Norfolk Boreas, which together will power four million homes in the UK.
When completed, it will be one of the largest offshore wind zones in the world.
If the Greener Grid Park development at Necton is approved by Breckland Council, it could be up and running within a year.
The council’s planning committee will make its decision at a meeting on May 7.