@transparent  

@lucia  - are you noting all this?

I am indeed (and thank you for tagging me) but restraining myself until later as I have soooo much on plate. 😁

Some quick points.

• Beware the hype - think of the 90s and the dotcom bubble (that went bang) - there's a huge amount of spin around all this.
• Data centres consume vast amounts of energy, water and need high speed fibre optic access.
• The idea that they will 'boost economies' is part of the hype - many come with huge subsidies, tax breaks and companies who keep their 'holding companies' in tax-havens.
• The employment claims are in the realms of fantasy. The coding is mostly outsourced to Asia and Africa. 
• The big silicon valley tech companies are born and bred out of (and still very much part of) the US defence industry - security is a major issue here apart from anything else. Data centres are potential targets. 
• Data.... who owns it? Who controls it? Who sells it to whom? Be very careful about how easily this is surrendered in the name of 'efficiency' or whatever. I just sat through Palantir's latest board offering - disturbing to say the least.

That report in the Guardian this morning is part of the lobbying for 'locational pricing' that's being fought and spun like heck. Be wary, despite what is said in the various lobbying efforts, the consumer is not a consideration. 

Posted by: @lucia

↑

Meant to add this but have been buried under piles of work.

My submission:

"The proposal to add the cost of an additional allowance for the Network Charge Compensation (NCC) Scheme to consumer energy bills under the Price Cap is an extraordinary proposal that treats consumers with contempt. 

 

The cost of electricity in the UK is already extreme and the endless additional weighting of levies onto consumers imposes a burden that is far too heavy. We already spread the cost of billing defaults onto other consumers, increasing the unit price of electricity, which in turn increases the burden and increases the defaults.... tautology in policy form.

 

I strongly oppose this proposal. It is not for already plundered consumers to have to bear the costs of business subventions. This is a further example of socialising costs while privatising profits."

~0~

 

Short and sweet/sour.... Can't help but think Ofgem 'consultations' are box-ticking exercises.  😏

I forgot to ask - did anyone else who responded to the consultation get an email from Ofgem weeks later saying their submission was 'accepted'?

It came to me so long afterwards I'd forgotten about it. I assume they will email again when they have something to publish. I'm not holding my breath.. 🐖✈️

@lucia Yes I got one

@jancold I received an acknowledgement too. Toodles.

I got an initial email acknowledging receipt of my submission but not any kind of "acceptance".

Certainly not seen anywhere any discussion around or rebuttal of the legitimate concerns raised, though.

We may never see any outcome from this Ofgem consultation.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is targeting cut-backs, starting with the least effective civil servants.

Those who devised a consultation suggesting consumers should subsidise electricity use by data centres must be close to the top of the list.

@transparent A week is a long time in Politics.

Posted by: @jancold

↑

@lucia Yes I got one

Their slowness to acknowledge mine was hopefully indicative of being snowed in with millions of contributions. 🤞🏻😂

Potentially the largest data centre hub in Europe and the largest sub station in the UK to power it.

https://news.sky.com/story/national-grid-sparks-deal-to-pave-way-for-giant-uk-data-centre-13606573

Part of the wider Teesworks development.

https://www.teesworks.co.uk/

Potential new  Data Center co located at the existing Drax power station to utilise existing excess capacity at Drax

https://www.cityam.com/drax-unveils-20bn-plans-for-new-data-centre-powered-by-burning-wood/

Obviously depends on your point of view of burning for electricity but doesnt have the same issues of grid  capacity and connections of many other sites

Posted by: @etchedpixels

↑

The full cycle efficiency of hydrogen as energy storage is terrible so you'd be far better moving things to use the power in the first place.

 

There's a company called Xlinks who are proposing just that.

They want to build a Data Centre and BESS on the hills of North Devon, connected to Alverdiscott Grid Supply Point by a new 3km spur off the 400kV Transmission Grid.

They already 'own' an Offer to Connect from an earlier project to bring electricity from Morocco using a pair of 1m-volt DC marine cables. The Morocco link was rejected by the Government when Rt Hon Ed Miliband was Sec of State for ESNZ.

There are serious environmental and physical objections to the Devon Data Campus, spearheaded by Sir Geoffrey Cox MP KC, the campaign group No Devon Data Centre, and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE).

Principle amongst these, and of particular interest to Forum Members here, are:

1: Alverdiscott is itself an unusual GSP in that it it is connected onto the Transmission Grid by contactors rather than being an integral part of the network.

That would make the 3km run by Xlinks a 'spur off a spur', which reduces system resilience.

2: The existing pair of Super-Grid Transformers at Alverdiscott are rated at 329.2MVA in the forwards direction, and have a Reverse Power Limit of 240MVA.

There is already Connected Capacity (generation and storage) of 424.8MVA, and a connection queue of a further 990.18MVA.

That might be fine if the Data Centre is regarded as a Demand asset, but useless if Xlinks wanted to export back to the grid from the 1700+ containers of BESS.

3: Xlinks have said that they 'might build the BESS first', followed by the five large buildings to house the data centre.

That's unlikely to be granted approval for the following reasons:

a: Britain already has too much Short Duration BESS. There is a moratorium on allowing more because it's not good use of time & effort by the Transmission Grid engineering teams.

Here's maps and explanations taken from NESO's webinar training sessions for participants in the forthcoming Regional Energy Strategic Plans. Their data comes from the 2025 exercise to revise the Connections Queue.

b: The Ofgem TM04+ regulation asserts that Demand Connections may not be refused for the following reasons

• location of the asset
• of benefit to the UK

Thus, if Xlinks separate the BESS and the Data Centre, it's no longer a Demand Connection, and could be rejected.

4: Data Centres require cooling, and that is generally assumed to use water.

The West Country is currently under an Amber drought warning. New reservoirs are required, but will take a decade to become operational.

Building a data centre on hilltops doesn't suggest that Xlinks have adequately thought this through.

Yes, I'm well aware that Data Centres are likely to employ very different system architecture by the time this project could come into existence. Server racks will be immersed in liquid, and serviced by overhead robotic arms which can hot-swap plug-in modules whilst they're still in the coolant.

5: 25% of global internet traffic passes through Bude in North-East Cornwall. That's a valuable asset, and presumably of great interest to owners of a prospective Data Centre.

But Xlinks proposed Data Campus is 32km away in an area without fibre broadband.

This is a good example of why we need Regional Energy Strategic Plans.

Third parties would be required to consult the RESP before making planning applications...
and preferably before organising public consultations !

Interesting reading xlinks response in October to some of the points:

The Data Center will use a closed loop cooling mechanism which will recirculate water.

The Data Center will not extract water from local rivers, streams or boreholes.

The Data Center won't take water from South West Water for cooling.

They are using Attenuation ponds.

The Data Center will need less cooling than many others exactly due to its location on a hill.

What are your thoughts on this @transparent ? I am not as knowlegeable as you in this area.