Electricity Transmission Costing Study

This report analyses the whole life costs of installing and maintaining new high voltage transmission circuits under the ground, under the sea and over ground.

The report’s remit purely relates to engineering costs.  Although it does acknowledge the aesthetic, human and environmental impacts, it makes no analysis of these areas.  

The Electricity Transmission Costing Study report by Parsons Brinckerhoff and Associates was launched to Parliamentarians and the public on 31 January 2012.  It was well received, and there has now been time to produce a ‘hyperlink’ version to assist readers who view the document on-screen.  

The authors and the Project Board have taken the opportunity to include some minor changes to reflect a number of comments received, which are gratefully acknowledged.  

The comments have led to some explanations being slightly reworded and a few references being corrected.  

Some minor changes to the bars on the Cost Sensitivities charts - the blue and yellow bar-charts in Section 7 of the main report - have also been made, to more properly include lifetime costs in the sensitivities.  These changes do not affect any of the reported outcomes but, should a reader use the sensitivity bars to extrapolate any of the cost estimates of the report, these changes improve the accuracy of the figures produced and ensure total  consistency with the existing estimates.