Do giant pylon plans show Wales being treated as a second class country?

Martin Shipton

A leading environmentalist has challenged National Grid to explain why it is planning to bring electricity to Wales via a subsea cable while proposing to build a gigantic network of pylons across Wales to service the electricity needs of south east England.

Dr Jonathan Dean of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales stated in a Facebook post: “National Grid is starting to consult the public about the Western Link 2 project. This is a joint venture with Scottish Power to connect the Machair wind farm off Scotland, and other onshore wind farms in Scotland, to the transmission grid in north Wales

“The plan is to bring the electricity by subsea cable to Aberdesach in Gwynedd, then have a buried cable past Caernarfon to Pentir near Bangor where there will be a large AC/DC converter station next to the existing substation (probably about the size of a large supermarket, but much higher)

“It could also be used to supply power from the eight new nuclear reactors at Wylfa to Scotland, when those eventually get built, as the Scottish Government will not allow nuclear power stations

“As north Wales already has a lot of offshore wind, and more is already approved, the next piece of the grid jigsaw is getting the electricity out of north Wales to where it is actually needed

“National Grid has a separate project to connect the grid in north Wales to that in the south via an entirely new line of 50 m high, 400,000 volt pylons through the middle of Wales. This was signed off by Ofgem in 2022 but despite working on the project for four years they are still refusing to say where they plan to build it. No doubt they will get the UK Government fully bought into their plans before they have the decency to discuss it with any members of the public!

“However, they can’t wait too long. With the Western Link 2 project now getting underway, they will have to show their hand pretty soon as pylon projects take far longer to get planning consent for – the public tend to get far more worked up about pylons than subsea cables, and a route through the middle of Wales where there are currently no pylons of any size will attract huge interest

“Once the electricity gets to the grid in south Wales there are existing lines to take it to south east England where the main electricity demand is

“That is a huge amount of new infrastructure planned for the entirety of Wales, from north to south, to satisfy the growing demand for electricity

“A pretty obvious question is: why isn’t the north south link also being put subsea rather than through the middle of Wales?”

Options

We asked National Grid to respond to Dr Dean’s comments. A spokesperson said: “Where the requirement for a new electricity network within Wales and England has been identified by the National Energy System Operator, National Grid has a responsibility to assess a range of options to find the best solution for the network.

“Consultation with local communities and key stakeholders plays a crucial part in the development of our proposals. We will be seeking feedback on our emerging proposals as soon as they are available to help develop a proposal that minimises environmental impact and maximises local socio-economic benefit.”