TWINS!












An intriguing little "consultation document" tucked away in the dusty recesses of National Grid's huge, rambling website reveals that the multinational company are considering the possibility of inflicting yet another giant pipeline on the good people of Wales.

The document reveals that this pipeline will be a "duplicate" of the Milford Haven to Tirley pipeline and will not be commissioned until late 2010, at the earliest.

The original Milford Haven to Tirley pipeline was ultimately triggered by "Capacity Auctions" held by National Grid in early 2004. In it's new guise as Enron-esque international energy trader, the Grid is obliged under the terms of it's license to make gas capacity available to the big LNG shippers (i.e. ExxonMobil, British Gas etc.) NG needed 3 years from the point of the auction to design, build and commission the pipeline.

It was a lovely plan which must have looked wonderful in the Lab but didn't really take account of that unpredictable beastie - local opinion. For some reason, the idea of running a bloody great 4 foot pipe with significant safety and environmental issues through the Welsh countryside bothered quite a lot of people...

So heck, why not bother people all over again!

While NG don't make clear what route they are proposing for this new pipeline, British Gas' enthusiastic respose to the consultation gives us a few clues;

“… the planning and construction of a major civil engineeringproject can be very complex particularly where the route may involve national parks or other environmentally sensitive areas. However, the Long Term system Entry Capacity (LTSEC) allocation process had been formulated upon a 3 year lead time being sufficient for any project.”

But as National Grid point out;

"There are inherent risks with delivery of the duplicate pipeline within a nominal 3 year investment lead time, including the potential for the project to be affected by significant external factors beyond National Grid NTS’s control associated with delivering elements of the duplicate pipeline. These external factors are principally the timescales associated with obtaining consent under the Environmental Impact Assessment regulations, planning permissions and easements from landowners."

In other words, the Nod, the Handshake, and a couple of CPO's slapped on unco-operative farmers.

So there we have it. National Grid are thinking about it, British Gas want it, and the language of the document is revealing inasmuch as "a duplicate pipeline" quickly metamorphoses into "the new duplicate pipeline" later on in the text.

Do you get the feeling that somebody somewhere has already made their mind up?