New High Tension Power Line

unidentifiable

Some of you may be aware that Mid to South Monaghan will shortly receive a new 400KV power line, anyone got some inside information on the proposed route and the one most likely to be selected??
See www.eirgrid.com for the maps.
3 routes outlined all pretty offensive.
:eek:
I would like to understand how the benifits of Fuel savings & Fewer emissions as proclaimed on the Eirgrid website are achieved with this proposed line.

dlambirl

I cant believe that this is going ahead?! the prefered route is beside two or three primary schools?? How can this go ahead?? The are saying development within 600metres will be banned beside the powerline but what about the houses already beside the proposed line? Myself and my boyfriend are building a house beside shercock and if route a goes ahead the powerlines will be within metres of our house. not only have i health concerns but the property prices in the area will be non existent.

unidentifiable

There are lots of local meetings on the subject at the moment, which is a total waste of time, this is being fast tracked through the planning process. I spoke to Magaret Conlon she expects the project to go ahead what ever. I will be about 1 Km away at the nearest point, it is the eyesore and the fact that not a single benefit to Monaghan/Cavan from it bugs me.
I suspect that Eirgrid wins as the ESB are not able to build power stations fast enough and energy from the UK/continent will always be cheaps so expect these line to buzz very loudly.
I worked in an ESB generating station which used 220 KV lines (1/2 the operating voltage of the proposed line), I don't believe there are any health side effects, I spent several years playing cards directly under these line to no ill effect (except my pocket). I hate the fact that this company will benefit by railroading a powerline through our countryside and we get SFA but an eyesore.

dlambirl

Unfortuntely i couldnt attend my local meeting but the other half did. If they do go ahead which i'm sure they will, I'll be within a few metres of it as it crosses the R178. These things are an eyesore and will be deathrimenal (sp?) to property prices in the area. There is also a local school in the area which will suffer as i cant see many parents wanting to send their kids to a school under a huge pileon as everyones read about the health risks involved with the wires.
How can there not be health risks? If these wires are buried 1 metre below the ground and it snows, where the line is the snow melts?
Also, why are they not considering to bury the cables? People will be alot more inviting to the idea than massive pilons?? The cables lose a certain small percentage of their power in the air but dont lose any in the ground so in the long run - the money that is spent burying the cables will be recouped with the energy that isnt lost??

BoozyBabe

Will there be a huge interference in TV reception with these in the area.
The cross-connect to Tyrone will happen on my doorstep, practically.
With the move to Digital TV happening in the coming years, will this not make digital completely impossible in the area?
Like you know who you already get loads of interference if a small scooter goes past as it is, will the power surge coming from the lines not also cause interference?

unidentifiable

It is just 50Hz power line so the frequency should not cause an issue with TV reception, depends what is modulated on the wires, quite often HT lines are used for high frequency communication. I suppose everything needs to comply with CE EME regulations, so digital TV should be OK, you are more likely to be affected by an electric fence on a nearby farm than the power line. I heard the cost of overground was €100M, underground was €1B. Guess which one will win out??

dlambirl

The lines will be literally on my doorstep and Im not happy about a huge pileon towering behind my house?
I would imagine that they will cause some interference with TV as also a few miles from my house there are windmills - and people have crap tv reception so i cant imagine that a huge 4 inch thick powerline wont have any interference??

Yorky

Not in My Back Yard then? I hope you are all going to completely give up using electricity from now on. Sounds a bit like mobile phone mast protests: everyone wants a mobile but no-one wants a mast. I recall a mobile phone belonging to one of the speakers at a protest rally starting to ring during their rant!

If we want to continue living a modern life on an overpopulated earth, we have to allow infrastructure to expand even when it affects us personally so just let the power lines go ahead as they will do anyway - you're just delaying the agony.

boatbuilder

I will also be affected by this. I've just built a new house and now discovered that his powerline will be less than 1 km from my new house in the best case scenario. Could be even closer.

Yorky, you seem to suggest that it is unreasonable to say "not in my back yard".

What I would say is....why should we sacrifice the value of our homes and our land, the health of our children, not to mention the tranquility and beauty of the countryside? Think about that for a second. Most peoples' lives revolve around their children, their home, their locality. This project will mess up a lot of peoples' lives.

The problem is that a lot of people not directly affected by this simply don't give a damn because they are too selfish. They just sit at the sidelines calling people "NIMBY"s.

Personally, if this goes ahead, I'll sell up and move. What annoys me the most is that its going to be very hard to sell my house / land with a huge steel monstrosity passing by the doorstep. The chances of compensation are extremely small, since only people whose land the actual pylons are built on, will get a small bit of compensation. If the pylons are in my neighbour's field, I get zero, nada....nothing except a massive drop in the value of my house and land, and possible health risks. I will go into major negative equity because I will still have to pay my mortgage, although my house will be worth s.f.a.

Doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.

dlambirl

boatbuilder wrote: »

I will also be affected by this. I've just built a new house and now discovered that his powerline will be less than 1 km from my new house in the best case scenario. Could be even closer.

Yorky, you seem to suggest that it is unreasonable to say "not in my back yard".

What I would say is....why should we sacrifice the value of our homes and our land, the health of our children, not to mention the tranquility and beauty of the countryside? Think about that for a second. Most peoples' lives revolve around their children, their home, their locality. This project will mess up a lot of peoples' lives.

The problem is that a lot of people not directly affected by this simply don't give a damn because they are too selfish. They just sit at the sidelines calling people "NIMBY"s.

Personally, if this goes ahead, I'll sell up and move. What annoys me the most is that its going to be very hard to sell my house / land with a huge steel monstrosity passing by the doorstep. The chances of compensation are extremely small, since only people whose land the actual pylons are built on, will get a small bit of compensation. If the pylons are in my neighbour's field, I get zero, nada....nothing except a massive drop in the value of my house and land, and possible health risks. I will go into major negative equity because I will still have to pay my mortgage, although my house will be worth s.f.a.

Doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.

boatbuider.. I'm in the same boat. I'm building a house at the minute which is gonna be less than 0.5kms away from the pilons. Property prices are gonna drop dramatically when this goes ahead.

Yorky... do you know the actual size of these pileons? as i've said, i'm building a house at the minute which will be less than 0.5kms from pileons. My house wont be worth anything and like boatbuilder i'll be left with negative equity while still having to pay a mortgage? And i dont have the choice to move like boatbuilder

unidentifiable

I went to the meeting in the four seasons, sorry folks but nothing is gonna stop this project and it will be very hard to force them to bury the cables. Kells to Dublin will be buried but it is a 220 KV line not the 400KV that is passing in Monaghan. I really wouldn't mind buried cables, the overhead ones are terrible. I was traveling on the M6 yesterday from London to Manchester and the number of HV lines visable was unbelievable.
My guess is the black route will be chosen to link in the Mullyash wind farm that is also inevitable, this route is sparcely populated and from Eirgrid's view the route of least resistance. The Blue and Red route pass primary schools, creche's and housing developemnts.
I suspect there only ever was one route, the other 2 are red herrings. When the choosen route is announced, the protesters on the other 2 routes will melt away, leaving only a small number of powerless protesters, I feel really sorry for who every they are.

dlambirl

I thought the Red route was the preferred route??