The UK 1989 Electricity Act effectively separated the consent procedures for power station and transmission lines. Hence, there was no environmental assessment of the impact of power lines when the new Wilton on Teeside power station was considered. But now the power station is built, the National Grid Company has a statutory duty to connect it to the grid, despite it leading to a 57% electric overcapacity and against mounting opposition from objectors to the construction of the transmission lines. The company is caught in a cleft stick. Since the location of new power stations is determined by market forces and the company has no choice but to connect them up, it has lost the ability to plan. It has, in other words, a strategic function without any strategic powers.