In 2009 National Grid began looking at different connection options for the proposed Moorside nuclear power station near Sellafield in West Cumbria.
Following an optioneering exercise, National Grid selected a 164km connection that broadly followed the existing Electricity North West (ENW) overhead lines, the majority of which would be removed once the new route was installed. In addition, the route included a 22km long tunnel under Morecambe Bay, three new substations (Roosecote, Moorside and Stainburn) and extensions to two existing substations (Heysham and Harker).
Omnia Projects were engaged in December 2014 to provide Development Engineers who would manage the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) contractors for the substation and tunnel, to ensure the solutions developed met National Grid requirements. This included:
- Developing the preferred option to a state suitable for sanction and progression through to delivery, including construction programme and accurate projection costs.
- Providing input into the Development Consent Order (DCO) process
- Providing information to the various consultants undertaking the environmental impact assessments
- Ensuring National Grid governance is followed
- Producing the Project Execution Plan (PEP) and providing technical input into contract strategies and tender events
One of the challenging aspects of the project was the tunnel which required a shaft to be constructed within Morecambe bay primarily to provide ventilation for cable cooling but, due to programme constraints, would also be required to extract the 2 tunnel boring machines (TBM’s) that were required to construct the 22km tunnel.
In May 2017 National Grid decided to put the NWCC project on hold following continued uncertainty over the future of the Moorside nuclear power station that NuGen were proposing to construct.
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