Beualy Denny 400Kv goes live

[albell1970]

Quite an interesting promo by SSE but some sad news about the removal of thousands of 132Kv pylons.

youtu.be/9d37GAbKsxw

[yv47r]

Hmmm interesting footage along with the STV news clips as well. What towers have they used? The DT tower at Beauly looks more L6 than L12/13 and not sure about the others.

Cheers Paul

[naughtyhorse]

The towers are a custiom design (i believe) L13 wasnt ready in time and L6 is unavailable(cant get the steel anymore)
from what I have heard the process was less than striaghforward

[yv47r]

My friend from North Wales was up that way the other week whilst on holiday with his daughters who live in Glasgow and they stayed in Beauly. I asked him if he saw the new towers being put up and he said he saw some work going on and until I told him he thought they were putting in a gas pipeline ;D Unfortunately he didn't take any photos oh well.

So a Scottish L6/12 hybrid then

Cheers Paul

[rillington]

Have just watched the youtube clip and the STV News clip and things of note are:

1. This is the first 400kv route in Scotland.

2. The route will run for 137 miles and will consist of 535 towers.

3. This route will replace 800 (accordingly STV) or 1000 (according to SSE) smaller towers, presumably including the towers which run alongside a section of the A9.

[naughtyhorse]

Replacing even 800 132kV towers with 535 400kV towers sounds a bit optimistic to me!
the 400's will have a design span of 360m, the 132 are designed around a 300m span.
even given that these span lengths are for a straigt line on flat ground - which beauly-denny certainly isn't AFAIK the routes are similar, so you would expect similar geography (i.e. cruel and unusual)
all things being equal
535 * 360m = 192km
800 * 300m = 240km
if it's true then balfours have done one hell of a job in route selection.

[albell1970]

The Loch Tummel - Keith line that forms part of the current Beauly - Denny line running alongside the A9 on the Drumochter pass and the remaining towers that are 132Kv/33Kv from Etteridge (south of Newtonmore) to Boat of Garten will be dismantled next year

However, the Boat of Garten - Keith section may survive as the original modified Pirelli PL1A 132Kv/33Kv.

The planned removal of the old line at Drumochter has helped the A9 dual-ling project immensely. The old line currently has many PL16 diversions that were built in the 1970's, at great expense, when the A9 was first upgraded and had to run alongside the existing pylon route (where possible) to keep the environmentalists happy. This proved impractical and resulted in some of the worst road design and subsequent accident hotspots in Scottish history. The whole line would have to be diverted again in order for the A9 dual-ling and this presented major financial worries, so a blessing in disguise?

[albell1970]

I just realized I haven't been on here since late 2013. My apologies. The Beauly - Denny 400kV replacement has caused several uproars. Apart from the size of the towers and the loud humming at the new Beauly switching yard, the project cost more than double, even more than the prohibitive cost of the submarine cable that was briefly given the green light and then dropped in favour of the overhead transmission line. The main objection appears to be in the wording of the original proposal the Scottish executive all agreed on in 2010. Apparently, the word "upgrade" should have read "rebuild."

The John Muir trust have subsequently opposed construction of any new 400kV lines across the Lake District, that includes replacing the PL4 line from Barrow to Kendal and the PL16 to Carlisle from Workington. It should prove to be a political nightmare for all those involved!

[golfingtrojan]

Some more info on the ZW route for you is that towers ZW001 – ZW053 are the new towers of L12X construction with ZW054 – ZW061 (existing network) of the old L6 type design.

[robin]

It's actually been quite interesting to see the new line taking shape. Sadly, this involved the destruction of many PL1s and PL16s as already pointed out, a spectacle made worse by the fact that lines other than the old Beauly to Denny line are to be dismantled as part of the mitigation process and replaced with wooden poles. Maybe with the project running so far over budget they won't bother, but I fear they will.
The new towers looked really out of place up to the point where they wired them up, then suddenly they looked OK. When they cleared up the building sites under each new tower and scraped the ground back to earth again, they almost looked as if they had always been there. They quite suit the rugged terrain of highland Perthshire (still would have preferred to keep the Pirelli PL1s!).
Did anyone see "Power To The People" about SSE on BBC4? The second episode had bits about the new line but it was mixed up with stuff about wind turbines and they glossed over most of the construction process and said they were wired up by helicopter (not the bits I saw them doing).

The trouble is it's now private construction and utility companies that are profiting from the replacement of these power lines. Now they have their fingers in the pie they aren't going to let it go again, so I think we'll see a lot more of these old lines being "upgraded".

[yv47r]

Feb 2, 2016 3:36:30 GMT -5 golfingtrojan said:

Some more info on the ZW route for you is that towers ZW001 – ZW053 are the new towers of L12X construction with ZW054 – ZW061 (existing network) of the old L6 type design.

Which end is this at? The Beauly or Denny end of the new line?
Cheers thanks Paul

[albell1970]

Shareholders can't see submarine cables, but they can see gleaming pylons marching up the Glens to the Highlands on their televisions, not their backyards, of course.