Rural communities warned UK will need to build more pylons where people dont want them

The UK will need to build more pylons, including in rural communities and areas where people do not want them, a leading industry advisor has warned.

Emma Pinchbeck, who has been appointed as the new chief executive of the independent advisory Climate Change Committee, but was speaking in her current role as head of industry body Energy UK, said the push for clean energy was the best way to insulate the UK against price shocks.

She said another price shock happening in the next decade, similar to that caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine, would cost the UK £50billion - the equivalent of wiping out the investment in Britain announced at this weeks Government investment summit.

Ms Pinchbeck said the UK would primarily have to build more electricity infrastructure for the electric heating and cars that will need to be rolled out to meet carbon cutting targets, as well as growing numbers of data centres and new housing estates.

Speaking to the UK100 network of local leaders on net zeros clean energy superpower summit at Londons County Hall, she said there was a need to build at speed.Londons County Hall, she said there was a need to build at speed.

She added: We need to build around five times the amount of infrastructure over the next seven years as we have built in the previous three decades.

We need to grow the power sector two to three times by 2050 and that is because were expecting consumers to be using electric vehicles, to be using heat pumps.

Were expecting data centres to use a huge amount of electricity, all these new housing estates, they require power connections.

So we need to grow the amount of electricity that we generate as well as make it clean.

She said public engagement would be key, but acknowledged there might be resistance, adding in jest: Historically that goes down very well with local communities.

Ms Pinchbeck continued: I have some bad news. We are going to need to build some pylons. We are going to have to build some pylons in places where people dont want pylons.

Were going to need to put them in the right places, of course. Were going to need to minimise the amount of building we do, being as efficient as possible.

Were going to need to think about community benefits, because the fact is that some communities will host more of this construction than others.

Addressing local leaders in the room, she said it is critical to have this conversation in your communities, talking them through the benefits that could be available, like community benefit funds, local ownership, money off energy bills.

Ms Pinchbeck welcomed the new Labour Governments focus on delivering clean energy by 2030, saying that it had an economic imperative, but also broader economic security, reducing the UKs dependence on gas imports that added so much money to bills through the energy crisis.

She said the UK was a price taker in the market, and the only response in future was to get gas demand down.

Delivering net zero - the UKs legally binding goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero overall by 2050 - would require more than a switch to clean power, added Ms Pinchbeck and she wanted to hear more from the Government on decarbonising heat and transport.

She said that was about bringing home the benefits of low carbon energy technologies to householders in their communities and in their homes.

Ms Pinchbeck said: As well as working out how we bring those technologies to people, we have to work out a way to do it fairly and at least cost across society to make sure that everyone benefits at every level, national, regionally and in homes from the clean energy transition, but also from the delivery of net zero thats coming.

Her comments came as Sir Keir revealed plans to install thousands of new pylons as part of a major rewiring of the National Grid. 

Ministers led by Sir Keir Starmer insist the controversial £30billion overhaul is vital to prepare for the switch to green electricity, but communities are worried about the impact on their surroundings. 

Thousands of miles of new cables will be constructed by 2030 to connect wind farms and power stations to towns and cities to meet increasing demand for electricity.

Areas in England affected by the new routes include County Durham, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, while in Scotland projects are planned in Aberdeenshire and East Lothian. 

The biggest part of The Great Grid Upgrade is a massive new power line stretching hundreds of miles down Englands east coast from Grimsby to Tilbury in Essex. 

New pylons across the east coast are estimated to cost £1billion, versus £4.3bn to £6.5bn for cables buried underground or under the sea, according to projections from National Grid.

The body has stated that it will work to reduce impact on local wildlife and that electricity carried by the pylons will be used across the UK.

A spokesperson for National Grid previously told MailOnline: When we are developing new electricity infrastructure projects, we consider all technology options, and share them at public consultation.

The government and our regulator Ofgem require us to assess our proposals against a range of factors, including value for money to bill payers and impact on the community and environment to ensure they are in line with current planning policy, our licence obligations, and net zero targets.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: Our mission is for clean power by 2030 because clean, homegrown energy is the best way to protect billpayers and boost Britains energy independence.

Securing Britains clean energy future will require improving infrastructure to get renewable electricity on the grid. 

Without this infrastructure, we will never deliver clean power for the British people and upgrading the electricity network is a key part of this.

It is important we take people with us and are currently considering ways to ensure communities who live near new clean energy infrastructure can see the benefits of this.