LI life: volunteering By Mary O’Connor
National Grid Visual Impact Provision – reflections on volunteering As she completes her period in office, the Landscape Institute’s representative on the National Grid’s Stakeholder Advisory Group for Visual Impact Provision project reflects on the past six years.
S
1
2 66
ince 2014, I have been the Landscape Institute’s representative on the National Grid’s Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) for its Visual Impact Provision project (VIP). This is part of the energy regulator Ofgem’s licencing of National Grid’s transmission operations, known as “RIIO”: Revenue = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs. The second phase, RIIO-T2, runs from April 2021 to March 2026. The VIP project falls under the “innovation” element of RIIO. In RIIO-T1, there was a £500million provision to carry out work to reduce the impact of existing transmission lines in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). The project is guided by the SAG, and composed of people who are passionate about the landscape, representing National Park and AONB associations, statutory bodies for landscape and heritage, interest groups such as Ramblers, CPRE and CPRW, as well as the Landscape Institute. It is chaired by Chris Baines and also attended by a representative of Ofgem. Identifying projects Led by Professor Carys Swanwick, an assessment methodology was adapted from the approach of the Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (GLVIA3) to identify where the infrastructure was causing adverse effects. From my involvement in GLVIA3, it was
