Below is the response from National Grid when i raised concerns about the new Pylons in Nailsea to them:
Dear Dr Fox
Thank you for your email and the opportunity to address the concerns raised by your constituents.
I believe the ‘traditional’ towers your constituent is referring to is a new cable sealing end (CSE) pylon that we have built near Engine Lane.
This has been built to replace the existing 132 kV pylon in that location and is needed to join the overhead electricity lines (owned by Western Power Distribution) to the new underground electricity cables we are installing between Nailsea and Portishead.
The CSE pylon is currently covered with scaffolding and plastic sheeting to provide the engineers working on joining the overhead lines and underground cables with a clean and enclosed environment. The scaffolding and sheeting will be removed when the terminations are completed.
Following successful testing, we will swing the existing overhead lines over from the old pylon and connect it to the underground cable terminations. Construction of the underground cables is nearing completion and are due to be energised by September 2021.
Later this year, we’ll remove the existing WPD lattice pylons from this location. As you will be aware, we are removing 9 km of WPD’s pylons between Nailsea and Portishead substation that currently run close to and over Nailsea homes and gardens.
During 2023, we’ll remove the second line of lattice pylons that run from the A368 in Sandford to Avonmouth. The black dashed lines in the attached map are the two lines of WPD pylons being taken down.
The new 400kV T-pylons will be built west of Nailsea, further away than where the WPD pylons are now – these are shown in the red line with the dots. Preparation work will start in mid-May, though people won’t start seeing the main T part of the structures until 2022.
We are briefing Nailsea Town Council on the above on Wednesday 24 March and will be writing to local residents ahead of the start of works in May.
I hope this information is helpful. If you would like to receive a briefing ahead of work starting on T-pylons later this year, we welcome the opportunity and can arrange a date at your convenience.
Kind regards
James Goode
Project Director
National Grid Hinkley Connection Project
