New National Grid scheme raises fresh questions over need for Welsh pylon network

Martin Shipton

A leading countryside campaigner says plans by National Grid to create a sub-sea electricity link between Scotland and Wales demonstrate that there is no need to spoil Wales’ landscape by building a network of pylons.

On June 23 National Grid will open a consultation on its Western Link 2 proposal, at the same time releasing further details about it.

Dr Jonathan Dean, a trustee of the countryside charity CPRE, told Nation.Cymru: “Western 2 is needed for two reasons – to connect a Scottish offshore wind farm to the grid, and to get power out of Scotland, avoiding capacity constraints at the border – and so help reduce the £1.5bn per year cost of turning turbines off.

“The project has always been shown as coming into north Wales with Pentir in Gwynedd always being shown ‘for illustrative purposes’.

“In 2024, from an FoI release, John Pettigrew, the then CEO of National Grid plc, told Vaughan Gething, the then First Minister, that even without Western 2 there was a case to get power out of north Wales, but not into south Wales.

“At first this seems puzzling, given that in 2022 National Grid had told a parliamentary select committee that a holistic transmission solution was needed for mid Wales due to all the onshore wind opportunities, but by 2024, all the Bute wind farms had ceased to be in mid Wales for grid planning purposes and were in Shropshire and southern Carmarthenshire.

“Also in 2024 National Grid carried out a screening study for where Western 2 should land, and found that Baglan, for example, in Neath Port Talbot, would be just as feasible as Pentir.

“However, just recently National Grid announced the consultation of the onshore section of Western 2, landing at Aberdesach in Gwynedd with a buried cable to Pentir.”

Dr Dean said there was a number of unanswered questions:

* Why was there a case to get power out of north Wales even without Western 2? Surely it cannot be only the Mona offshore wind farm which will connect to Bodelwyddan.

* Why land Western 2 in north Wales at all, when the majority of future demand for electricity is in south Wales, and Baglan is just as feasible a landing site? Is it to get power from Wylfa [the proposed nuclear power station on Anglesey] to Scotland? But there was officially no decision about Wylfa then!

* If it is feasible to connect Scotland to south Wales subsea, why is it necessary to connect north Wales to south Wales by onshore pylons? Is it an “insurance policy” in case the Green Gen projects fail to be consented?

Separate cable

Dr Dean added: “The next update to the Holistic Network Design (HND) is imminent, now being called the “transitional Centralised Strategic Network Plan” (snappy!) or tCSNP, and when asked about north south, National Grid just refer me to that. The HND introduced Western 2 as 2GW, while the HND update doubled the capacity, which was shown as a separate cable into Bodelwyddan.

“NESO [the National Energy System Operator, which plans energy supply to ensure it meets demand] have told me they don’t care if it’s Pentir, Bodelwyddan or both.

“I am assuming north south would NOT start at Pentir due to the issue of pylons through Eryri, although proposed legislative changes may alter that.

“With the capacity upgrade of the Pentir Trawsfynydd line there will be four circuits from Pentir to Connah’s Quay of somewhere between 2-3GW each (but with a maximum total of 6-9 GW). With 4GW coming in from Scotland, 4GW from Wylfa and about 3GW from the Irish Sea, is there really any need for onshore generation?”