Fuel and Power

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 7 July 1952.

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Photo of Mr Geoffrey Lloyd Mr Geoffrey Lloyd , Birmingham King's Norton 12:00, 7 July 1952

I am glad to have the support of my hon. Friend. The gas grid was first developed in this country in South Yorkshire before the war—if the right hon. Gentleman will allow me to point that out—and it was not just the development that comes from nationalisation. It has been much expanded and seems to be springing up in all the areas of the country. It has the advantage of being able to link up with the coke ovens, planned by the National Coal Board, and by some of the steel companies, and it will also link up, we hope, to take some of the refinery gasses—that is surplus gas produced in the oil refineries. What is very important, and rather new for gas, is the idea now being discussed of linking up the Sheffield-Nottingham area and the Birmingham area by an inter-connecting gas grid communication across the Midlands.

With regard to the electricity grid, very important developments are planned. I think that there is some misunderstanding about the functions of the existing grid. That grid was really planned only to take rather temporary and relatively small passages of power, so to speak, between local grids and power stations. It was never planned for the continuous and bulk transmission of large amounts of power. That is the purpose of the new 275,000 volt grid. It is, I think, particularly interesting that this grid will link up with the new power stations which the British Electricity Authority are planning to build in the expanding area of the East Midlands coalfields, and which will ultimately mean the bringing of very large amounts of power to London which had, in fact, been generated in electricity stations sited in the East Midlands coalfields.

I believe that ultimately it may be necessary to raise the voltage of this super-grid, particularly for this purpose, to something near 400,000 volts, and that may mean—as much as 2 million kilowatts will be going about 120 miles to London, which will be the equivalent of about 4½ million tons of coal which will not then have to be transported by rail.

I ought also I think to mention, because it is rather important from the point of view of fuel efficiency, that the British Electricity Authority and the National Coal Board are planning to construct power stations in particular areas in the coalfields in order to use coal which is really practically unsaleable for any other purpose, and these stations will, of course, also be connected with the grid.

I should like to mention what I think is a rather interesting development in the grid. For some time, the British Electricity Authority and the Electricité de France have had a joint committee which have been studying the possibility and the desirability of having a submarine power cable under the Channel which would connect the electricity grid of the two, countries. This Committee has been working for some time, and it has now made a report which indicates that it should be technically possible to do it, although a good deal of experiment will be necessary in order to make quite sure that it can be done properly.

I am glad to think that the experience gained in the laying of the Pluto pipeline will almost certainly be useful to electrical engineers in this peacetime project. It is also felt that it is commercially desirable partly because the peak hours in the two countries, partly for social reasons, partly for industrial, and partly for climatic, take place at different times. It may be that at some time in the future we may, from time to time, draw some power in this country from the hydroelectric stations of the Alps and make a similar return across the cable from the coalfields of the East Midlands to France. The position at present is that the British Electricity Authority are engaged in considering that report.