At last week’s full council meeting, Leader of the council, Lora Peacey-Wilcox (Alliance) revealed that the head of energy regulator, Ofgem, has agreed to visit the Isle of Wight to hear more about the serious issue of energy capacity.
It may not be well-known by residents, but on the Isle of Wight we have just three major connectivity cables between here and the mainland.
One cable is only for use by the Mainland (just a few hours a year – more here), one is a back-up cable, and the other is used for transporting electricity to and from the Island.
Peacey-Wilcox: I can’t tell you how massive this is
Cllr Peacey-Wilcox told members,
“After explaining our many years of struggle of capacity on the Island and the fact that we are moving really well towards net zero, I’m really chuffed that Ofgem CEO, Jonathan Brearley has agreed to meet us.
“I can’t tell you how massive this is.”
Peacey-Wilcox: We’re at capacity
She went on to add,
“We can’t have any more solar farms, can’t produce any more power because we do not have the connectivity and every now and then Ofgem will say to us, switch off the connectivity, you’re producing too much electricity.
“That’s ridiculous and it’s been an ongoing thing for about 40 years, so to actually tackle this man head-on was absolutely fantastic.”
The Islands’ Forum
The news came as Cllr Peacey-Wilcox shared details about a three-day conference she’d attended on Orkney as part of the Islands’ Forum.
Instigated through the work of Isle of Wight MP, Bob Seely, the government-led meeting played host to all the Islands around the UK, where a number of subjects were discussed.
Bacon: Slow down in development of solar farms would disappear
At Tuesday night’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee meeting, Cllr Jonathan Bacon (Alliance), the Cabinet member for Climate Change, also spoke about the capacity problem.
He said,
“The problem is that we have a redundant power station that takes a whole cable.
“If that cable were available, the slow down in development of solar farms and other renewable sources of energy would disappear and we would have a lot more capacity to generate the energy we need and then export energy.”
He added,
“It is heartening that Lora [Peacey-Wilcox] when speaking to other industry people at the conference on Orkney made that point and got an immediate response and Ofgem are coming here to discuss that very issue.”
At the same meeting Cllr Michael Lilley (Alliance) spoke passionately about ambitions for the Island to become self-sufficient in renewable energy, creating jobs and boosting the economy.
Image: Hamish Kale under CC BY 2.0
