FAB LINK LIMITED STATEMENT OF REASONS Accompanying the making of: THE FAB LINK LIMITED (BUDLEIGH SALTERTON TO BROADCLYST) COMPULSORY PURCHASE ORDER 2016 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 On 29 November 2016 FAB Link Limited (incorporated and registered in Guernsey with company number 54637 whose registered office is at Glategny Court, Glategny Esplanade, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 1WR) (the "Acquiring Authority") resolved to make the FAB Link Limited (Budleigh Salterton to Broadclyst) Compulsory Purchase Order 2016 (the "Order"). The Order was made on 2 December 2016. 1.2 The FAB interconnector is a 220km proposed underground and subsea interconnector which will allow exchange and trading of up to 1400MW of electricity between France and Britain via Alderney. The cable will cross the channel island of Alderney in order to connect future renewable tidal stream generation in the seas around Alderney. 1.3 The FAB interconnector is being developed by Transmission Investment LLP, together with the French grid company RTE (Réseau de Transport d’Électricité) and Alderney based tidal power developer Alderney Renewable Energy Limited ("ARE"). The Acquiring Authority is a joint venture between Transmission Investment LLP and ARE. The Acquiring Authority will own the assets in Alderney and Britain and RTE will own the assets in France. 1.4 The FAB interconnector is designated as a European Project of Common Interest (PCI project number 1.7.1) under the provisions of European Union Regulation No. 347/2013 on guidelines for Trans-European Network for Energy (“TEN-E Regulation”) and can access funding through the Connecting Europe Facility. 1.5 The Order, if confirmed would authorise the Acquiring Authority to compulsorily purchase land and rights over land to enable it to construct the onshore elements of the FAB interconnector in Britain. 1.6 The following terms are used in this Statement:- 1.6.1 the Scheme: meaning the works described at paragraph 3.6; 1.6.2 the Order Land: meaning those parcels of land described at paragraphs 4.1 to 4.6 and shown coloured pink, blue, blue and hatched brown and brown on the maps referred to in the Order; 1.7 This statement of reasons (the "Statement") accompanies the making of the Order and has been prepared in accordance with Section 11 of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s “Guidance on Compulsory purchase process and The Crichel Down Rules for the disposal of surplus land acquired by, or under threat of, compulsion” dated October 2015 (the "CPO Guidance"). This Statement includes the following sections: 1.7.1 Section 2 sets out an explanation of the use of the enabling power; 1.7.2 Section 3 provides a brief description of the FAB interconnector and the elements of the FAB interconnector that constitute the Scheme; 1.7.3 Section 4 provides a brief description of the Order Land and its location, topographical features and present use and sets out the special considerations affecting the Order Land; 1.7.4 Section 5 sets out the new rights to be compulsorily acquired and the reasons for including the Mining Code; 1.7.5 Section 6 provides an outline of the Acquiring Authority’s purpose in seeking to acquire the land and new rights and justification for compulsory purchase; 1.7.6 Section 7 sets out the steps the Acquiring Authority has taken to negotiate for the acquisition of land and rights over land by agreement; 1.7.7 Section 8 contains a statement about the planning position of the Order Land; 1 1.7.8 Section 9 details how the Scheme will be funded; 1.7.9 Section 10 details the consents that are required before the Scheme can be implemented and related applications; 1.7.10 Section 11 includes a statement of the Acquiring Authority’s justification for compulsory purchase, with regard to Article 1 of the First Protocol, Article 6 and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights; and 1.7.11 Section 12 sets out the Acquiring Authority's conclusion; and 1.7.12 Section 13 sets out a list of the documents that the Acquiring Authority would intend to refer to or put in evidence in the event of an inquiry and where and when such documents can be inspected. 2. THE ENABLING POWERS 2.1 The Order is made pursuant to section 10 of and paragraph 1 of Schedule 3 to the Electricity Act 1989. 2.2 Paragraph 1 of Schedule 3 to the Electricity Act 1989 provides that: (1) Subject to paragraph 2 below, the Secretary of State may authorise a licence holder to purchase compulsorily any land required for any purpose connected with the carrying on of the activities which he is authorised by his licence to carry on. (2) In this paragraph…“land” includes any right over land…and the power of the Secretary of State under this paragraph includes power to authorise the acquisition of rights over land by creating new rights as well as acquiring existing ones. 2.3 On 26 March 2014 the Acquiring Authority was granted an electricity interconnector licence pursuant to section 6(1)(e) of the Electricity Act 1989. 2.4 The activity which the Acquiring Authority is authorised by the electricity interconnector licence to carry out is to participate in the operation of the FAB Link electricity interconnector between Great Britain (at Exeter 400kV substation) and France (at Menuel 400kV substation), passing through the territory of Alderney. 2.5 The electricity interconnector licence granted to the Acquiring Authority incorporates a standard condition which relates to compulsory purchase: Condition 7. Compulsory acquisition of land etc The powers and rights conferred by or under the provisions of Schedule 3 to the Act (Compulsory Acquisition of Land etc. by Licence Holders) shall have effect in relation to the licensee to enable the licensee to carry on the activities authorised by this licence and which relate to: (a) the construction or extension of the licensee’s interconnector; or (b) activities connected with the construction or extension of the licensee’s interconnector or connected with the operation of the licensee’s interconnector. 2.6 The Acquiring Authority may therefore be authorised to purchase compulsorily land or rights over land to enable the Acquiring Authority to carry on the activities authorised by its licence. All of the land and rights over land identified in the Order are required for this purpose. 2.7 Schedule 9 to the Electricity Act 1989 requires the Acquiring Authority to "have regard to the desirability of preserving natural beauty, of conserving flora, fauna and geological or physiographical features of special interest and of protecting sites, buildings and objects of architectural, historic or archaeological interest" and "do what he reasonably can to mitigate 2 any effect which the proposals would have on the natural beauty of the countryside or on any such flora, fauna, features, sites, buildings or objects." 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCHEME 3.1 The FAB interconnector is a 220km proposed underground and subsea interconnector which will allow exchange and trading of up to 1400MW of electricity between France and Britain via Alderney. 3.2 British and French electricity transportation grids operate as alternating current (AC) systems, in which the direction of the current changes (and then changes back) on average fifty times a second. However, an AC interconnector between the British and French grids is not technically and economically feasible. The best current technology for the project, which the Acquiring Authority proposes to use, combines a high voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnector with a converter station at each end to change the current to AC. In contrast to an AC interconnector, an HVDC interconnector does not require the synchronization of the British and French grids nor does the capacity of the HVDC underground or subsea cables significantly reduce with distance travelled. 3.3 To develop the project, suitable connection options in southern England had to be identified. The Acquiring Authority and National Grid Electricity Transmission plc ("NGET") undertook an assessment which identified seven potential sites. The assessment, described in detail in the FAB Link Connection Options Study1, concluded that the existing NGET 400kV substation at Broadclyst in Devon offers the preferred grid connection. 3.4 Once a potential grid connection was identified the Acquiring Authority commissioned a number of studies which considered a range of environmental, technical and economic constraints to identify suitable landfall and route options for the onshore cable. As set out in the HVDC Converter Station Site Selection Process Report2, Landfall Selection Process Report3 and Cable Corridors Selection Process Report4, the proposed landfall site at Budleigh Salterton and the onshore cable route were assessed to be the most suitable from an environmental, technical and economic perspective. 3.5 The main components of the FAB interconnector are set out below and shown on Figure 1: 3.5.1 High Voltage Direct Current (“HVDC”) electricity cables buried in or placed (and protected) upon the sea bed between the Contentin (or Cherbourg) Peninsula, Normandy, France and Budleigh Salterton, East Devon; 3.5.2 HVDC electricity cable landing and traverse (as underground cables) of the Channel Island of Alderney; 3.5.3 HVDC onshore and offshore cable ‘transitions’ at the shorelines of all three territories; 3.5.4 HVDC to High Voltage Alternating Current (“HVAC”) converter stations in both Normandy and Devon; and 3.5.5 HVDC onshore cables from the transition points to the converter stations and HVAC onshore cables