Council Urged to Act on Electricity Grid Shortage 'Crisis'

Development in Chiswick could be stalled due to lack of capacity

Projects such as the one at Empire House need to be allocated electricity supply. Picture: Facebook

Councillors in Chiswick are urging Hounslow Council to take action to mitigate the potential impact of capacity shortages in the electricity grid locally.

It is feared that the issue could result in the delay or cancellation of development projects in the area including the Empire House scheme blighting the neighbourhood with a host of vacant properties and abandoned building sites.

An article in the Financial Times revealed that the Great London Assembly (GLA) had written to developers warning them that projects faced delays of up to a decade due to the lack of electricity supply in three west London boroughs including Hounslow and Ealing.

The problem has arisen because of the rapid pace of development in these areas and data centres, which are intensive users of power, being set up along the M4 corridor.

Measures to increase capacity to meet demand have a long lead time and might not be in place before 2035 potentially meaning all new development in the area would need to be delayed.

The leader of the Conservatives on Hounslow Council, Peter Thompson said that the issue had first come to his attention after a meeting in June between Cllr Jo Biddolph and Great Marlborough Estates. The developer, which is currently building a major new scheme in the centre of Chiswick around Empire House, Acton Lane and Essex Place in a £120 million investment, told the councillor that the electricity company SSE had initiated a queueing system because of emerging supply issues.

Currently, developers can apply for power long in advance of any development being built - such as at design stage, or before a planning application has been made. If those early applications for power are approved and accepted, that supply is allocated and is therefore not available to anyone else - giving a false impression of the supply available right now.

This means that projects which are more advanced but have not yet been allocated electricity supply cannot proceed and it is understood that this may cause a delay to the completion of the Empire House project or even outright cancellation.

Cllr Biddolph contact the energy minister Greg Hands about the issue the day after the issue and a joint letter has also been written by Cllr Thompson and Cllr Biddolph to Hounslow Council urging it to take action on the matter which they describe as a ‘crisis’.

They suggest lobbying SSE to change its policy to allocating power on the date it is needed and not the date the application is made. In addition, they would like the council to confirm with companies undertaking significant developments in the borough whether they already have an allocation of power and to confirm their start dates and realistic completion dates with that information to be forwarded to SSE. A list could also be drawn up of projects held in limbo in the planning system or still at the early stages of the process which are unlikely to need power in the foreseeable future. This could include the massive Tesco/Homebase development in Osterley which is subject to a public inquiry.

The councillors suggest that Hounslow Council should be urging the other affected boroughs of Ealing and Hillingdon to provide the same information to SSE.

Cllr Thompson said, “It is imperative that developments such as Empire House be completed. This site has blighted Chiswick for over a decade - stuck in development limbo - but is currently proceeding at a fast pace. If the developers are not guaranteed a power supply for the completed flats and retail units below, the risk is that they will walk away leaving an unfinished block which might not be completed for another decade. “

As well as the Empire House project there are a host of schemes in the Chiswick area in various stages of the planning process which will create further demand for electricity in the area. It is not known which of these schemes have an allocation of power already.

These include Chiswick Terrace (planning applied for), Fourth Mile, Gunnersbury Avenue B&Q site (currently being considered by the Mayor of London), Holly House by Chiswick Roundabout, the Birchgrove retirement housing scheme at the police station, 250 Gunnersbury Avenue, garage block sites including Garth Road, Oxford Road North and developments at the Post Office and Gunnersbury Station car park.

In addition, there are large scale developments on the borough boundary with Ealing including the huge scheme by TfL for a development on Bollo Lane and continuing building at the Acton Gardens development.

The councillors conclude their letter by saying, “It is in all our interests that this situation is sorted as quickly as possible and we are more than happy to work with you and central Government on this matter.”

Councillor Tom Bruce, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development at Hounslow Council, said, “We are aware of the pressures on the electrical grid and we are pleased that the GLA is exploring innovative solutions to mitigate the immediate constraints from this issue.

“Despite these challenges, we still have an acute housing shortage in our borough and we remain committed to building affordable homes for our residents. We will also work closely with the GLA to ensure economic growth is not adversely affected by these pressures.”

An Ealing Council spokesperson said, "We are deeply concerned by this news and we are currently reviewing how the recently announced electricity capacity constraints will impact our substantial housing development programme. In the middle of an affordable housing crisis in Ealing and across London, it is vital that we are able to continue building new genuinely affordable homes to let. We have requested urgent meetings with the Greater London Authority and government ministers to discuss how this issue can be resolved and will be monitoring developments closely."

July 31, 2022