Landfall site selection

The landfall site selection began consultation in early 2021 with the overarching principles to:

• Avoid direct significant impacts with European, national and local ecologically designated sites

• Avoid direct significant impacts with landscape and cultural heritage designations

• Avoid areas with substantial infrastructure or urban/recreational land use such as housing or caravan parks

• Maintain a required separation distance from other offshore cables and pipelines

• Ensure the potential horizontal directional drill length is achievable (up to four drills), and

• Consider options that could facilitate co-location of underground cable landfall infrastructure with other known developers who may be connecting to the national grid at a similar location and therefore using a similar landfall

Onshore cable corridor selection

North Falls began its onshore cable route selection process in 2021 adhering to the following principles wherever possible:

• Routing should be kept as straight and as short as practicable - avoiding tight bends

• Avoid residential titles (including whole gardens) where possible

• Avoid direct significant impacts with European, national and local ecologically designated sites

• Avoid direct significant impacts with landscape and cultural heritage designations

• Avoid direct significant impacts to mature woodland, historic woodland and important hedgerows

• Minimise the number of:

  • crossings of assets such as utilities, and of road and rail crossings

  • hedgerow and watercourse crossings, and

• Consider options that could facilitate co-location of cable infrastructure with other known developers who may be connecting to the national grid at a similar location.

Onshore substation site - selection of options

The key principles underpinning the site selection process for North Falls onshore substation are that options should (all factors being equal):

• Be located as close as possible to the National Grid substation - with a maximum distance of 3km (to reduce electrical losses)

• Include up to 0.2km2 of land for the substation, temporary works/construction compound as well as landscaping, flood defence and drainage and other necessary infrastructure

• Include an allowance for temporary and permanent access to the highway network

• Consider sharing land and minimising spatial extent of effects, subject to the agreement of National Grid

• Facilitate co-location with other known developers who may be connecting to the national grid at a similar location

• Consider options with the least environmental effects when considered with other known developers' proposed substation location(s)

• Be technically feasible and economically viable and be subject to a constructability review

• Comply with requirements of National Policy Statement provisions and other key national and local policy relevant to alternatives and site selection

• Avoid land within residential titles (including whole gardens) where possible

• Avoid direct significant impacts with European, national and local ecologically designated sites

• Avoid direct significant impacts with landscape and cultural heritage designations

• Minimise significant impacts to the special qualities of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

• Avoid mature woodland and historic woodland

• Avoid areas that fall within Flood Zone 3 and areas of contaminated ground

• Locations should take advantage of the screening provided by land form and existing features and the potential use of site layout and levels to keep intrusion into surrounding areas to a reasonably practicable minimum,* and

• Options should keep the visual, noise and other environmental effects to a reasonably practicable minimum.*

* aligned to the Horlock Rules which apply to the location and design of substations.

Horlock Rules for siting and designing substations