GRIDLINESpring 2019 The magazine for landowners Inside The secret of the last brewery before Scotland The ex-couple recreating the herbal scents of summer A bite, a brew and a break from the fast lane – Watford Gap turns 60 WIN A £250 shopping spree Tackling extinction The grantor working with science headto keep our wildlife on earth-on 5008_Gridline_Apr_p1_Covers_v5.indd 1 08/04/2019 14:45 How to contact National Grid if you are a grantor Some useful Land officers provide a day-to-day contact numbers point of contact for National Grid grantors. You can also contact The Land & Acquisition Services team are responsible for acquiring all rights and permissions them if you have any questions from statutory authorities and landowners needed about compensation, reinstatement, to install, operate and maintain National Grid’s maintenance or refurbishment electricity and gas transmission networks. The group plans in your area – the team acts as the main interface for landowners with gas will be happy to help. and electricity equipment installed on their land. Your local contacts are listed below. If you have any queries, please ELECTRICITY AND GAS telephone 0800 389 5113 and » Land teams – all regions 0800 389 5113 select from the four options below. WAYLEAVE PAYMENTS » For information on wayleave payments, telephone the payments helpline on 0800 389 5113 EASEMENT ENQUIRIES » Email [email protected] CHANGE OF DETAILS » To inform National Grid of changes in ownership or contact details, telephone 0800 389 5113 for electric and 01926 654844 for gas, or email [email protected] ELECTRICITY EMERGENCY » Emergency calls to report pylon damage to National Grid can be made on 0800 404090. Note the tower’s number – found just below the property plate – to help crews locate it ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS » For information on electric and magnetic fi elds, call the EMF information line on 08457 023270 (local call rate). Website: emfs.info GAS EMERGENCY » 0800 111 999 DIAL BEFORE YOU DIG » Before carrying out any work in the vicinity of gas pipelines, overhead power lines or underground electric cables, you should contact Plant Protection on 0800 688588 so that searches can be made to determine the exact position of any National Grid assets CUSTOMER COMMENTS » Write to Land & Acquisition Services, WAYLEAVE PAYMENTS National Grid House, Warwick Technology Park, OPTION 1 AND CHANGE OF OPTION 3 EAST AND Gallows Hill, Warwick, Warwickshire CV34 6DA. NAME/ADDRESS/ SCOTLAND Or email [email protected] OWNERSHIP OF LAND Gridline is produced by Victoria Court, 8 Dormer Place, OPTION 2 WEST AND WALES OPTION 4 SOUTH Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 5AE 02 SPRING 2019 GRIDLINE 5008_Gridline_Apr_p2-3_InfoMap_&_Contents_v4.indd 2 09/04/2019 09:33 14 06 17 … to my first edition as the new editor of Gridline.Welcome… I hope every one of the tens of thousands of grantors who pick up this edition enjoys reading it as much as I have putting it together with the team. As you’ll see over the page, one of my main 10 roles is to build good relationships with grantors CONTENTS and the wider community, which is why we’re so NEWS AND FEATURES keen to hear your answers to the survey on the back page. 04 The interconnectors safeguarding the 17 The fi rst M-way service station celebrates If you can take a few minutes to reply, it UK’s energy supply into the future its 60th birthday this year – Gridline will help shape the future of Gridline and the rolled in to follow in the tyre tracks of 05 Creating wildlife corridors in way we communicate with our most valuable Jagger and Hendrix England’s industrial heartland customers… and could earn you £250 worth 06 The secret life of conservation: the 20 WIN: A bumper £250 worth of of high-street shopping vouchers. work at Chester Zoo that’s helping high-street shopping vouchers Our grantors play a vital role in ensuring endangered species around the planet we can provide a safe and reliable supply 10 No more beer till Scotland – inside of electricity to keep homes and businesses the north-east’s oldest brewery connected, so it’s crucial that assets such as 13 pylons and substations are protected. Take a look 13 The SALUTE every grantor needs to at page 13 to see how you can ensure they are. know to keep their land and National Elsewhere, we’ve taken a quick break at the Grid assets safe Watford Gap motorway services, one of the 14 Making perfect scents of life… nation’s most visited grantors, to find out some the divorcees who’ve found of the quick-stop’s celebrity secrets. friendship in the herbery Slightly more sedate and chilled out, we visited a grantor dedicated to keeping the centuries-old but slowly declining tradition of growing THE BEAUTIFUL SIDE OF THE BEAST wonderful-smelling herbs, for everything from cooking to landscape gardening, alive. Marlyn McInnes from Glenisla in the As a business, National Grid is heavily Cairngorms snapped this wonderful shot committed to sustainability and the conservation of her dog, Quartz, at the height of last of our countryside, so our visit to grantor year’s Beast from the East. Chester Zoo focuses unashamedly on the very Her picture, with Mount Blair and real global challenge facing mankind to prevent Forter Castle in the background, wins the extinction of many of the animals we the ‘natural beauty’ competition for currently take for granted. It’s a sobering read. £100 worth of shopping vouchers. Hopefully, there’s something for everyone in She said: “It was a really hard time for this edition, but please make sure you tell us what us on the farm that week, but when you you want to read about on the back page. see this photo you realise bad weather is not all bad.” Joe Martin Compliance Lead, Land & Acquisitions GRIDLINE SPRING 2019 03 5008_Gridline_Apr_p2-3_InfoMap_&_Contents_v4.indd 3 09/04/2019 09:34 ONE-MINUTE INTERVIEW NEWSLINE NAME Joe Martin The latest news from National Grid and its landowner partners YOUR ROLE AT NATIONAL GRID? Ensuring long-standing payment arrangements Finding Nemo Link with grantors are fulfi lled as well as A £560 million project that will enable the 260 working on managing movement of renewable energy between the UK kilometres of cables new initiatives to and Belgium is now up and running. needed to link develop our relationship Nemo Link to the The 1,000 megawatt Nemo Link cable stretches with the wider community. Every day network is different and I’m loving the variety. 80 miles beneath the sea from Bruges in Belgium to Richborough in Kent, where it links into HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN National Grid’s high-voltage network via a new WITH NATIONAL GRID? Six overhead line and converter station (right). years. From the graduate scheme I moved into a contract management A further £200m has been invested in two role, helping to enable new generators high-voltage substations and 60 pylons between to connect into the national grid. More there and Canterbury, which will carry 260km recently I’ve been part of a team of cables needed to connect the Nemo Link helping to ensure our substations interconnector to the main transmission network. More than 1,400 engineers and project throughout the south-west region were maintained, reliable and safe. Nemo Link, a joint venture between National specialists worked on the four-year project, Grid and Belgian transmission system operator which has taken 2.6 million hours. BEST PART OF THE JOB I’m Elia, began commercial operations on 31 January. John Pettigrew, Chief Executive Offi cer of a people person and love solving During construction, teams found 1,200 potential National Grid, said: “Nemo Link will bring problems and this job allows me to combine both. There are so WWII explosives and a loaded 17th-century great benefi ts to consumers in the UK and many avenues open for me to cannon on the seabed and beaches. Belgium by off ering both countries access to a pursue to improve our service broader energy mix and providing opportunities to the grantor community. to expand into other electricity markets. “By connecting the UK and Belgian WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES? I’m married with a two-year-old son, electricity markets, we will ensure customers RICHBOROUGH so I don’t get much time to myself have access to diff erent sources of generation BRUGES these days! If I do, I try to play a and lower priced electricity.” round of golf with my dad and The complex Nemo Link project – the fi rst brother. I’m also a keen runner Canterbury and cyclist and am dipping my Ostend of four interconnector projects being developed over the next three years as part of toes into the world of triathlons. Folkestone Dunkirk a £2.1 billion National Grid investment WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE Calais package – was delivered ahead of schedule For every reason it’s SAYING? and under budget. not possible, there are hundreds of people who have faced the same circumstances and succeeded. WHAT ARE YOUR THREE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS? Optimistic, confi dent and cheerful. HINKLEY HAT-TRICK Beatty, J Murphy & Sons Ltd and Siemens have Three businesses have teamed up on a vital been awarded contracts totalling £300m. All THREE PEOPLE YOU’D INVITE project that will help bring renewable power three will work to build the project’s 57km-long Arsene TO DINNER AND WHY to homes and businesses across Britain. infrastructure, due to be completed in 2026. Wenger – I’m from a long line of By routing a high-voltage electricity cable Sue Adam, Hinkley Connection Project Arsenal fans.