Row erupts as Adam Price predicts massive civil disobedience protest over pylon plans

Martin Shipton

Former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price has predicted mass civil disobedience on a scale unseen in Carmarthenshire for more than 60 years over an energy company’s plans to erect a network of pylons.

Green GEN Cymru, whose sister company Bute Energy aims to create a linked series of wind farms across mid Wales, has rejected Mr Price’s comments and asked him to reconsider his position on the issue.

Mr Price, the MS for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, questioned First Minister Eluned Morgan about complaints he had received from constituents in the Towy Valley about the actions of Green GEN.

He claimed that in the last week or so a number of landowners had contacted his office regarding the issuing of warrants to allow the firm to have access to their land without their permission.
Green GEN Cymru are the developers proposing a pylon route through the Tywi and Teifi Valleys to connect onshore wind farm projects to the national grid – plans that have met strong opposition from communities along the route since the first proposals emerged in 2022.

Surveys

Since the issuing of an IDNO [Independent Distribution Network Operator] licence to Green GEN from the regulator OFGEM, the company has begun sending correspondence via their agents Burton Knowles notifying landowners of their intention to access land for surveys, under their power as an Acquiring Authority according to the 1989 Electricity Act.

In his question to the First Minister, Mr Price noted that tensions were already highly exacerbated in communities along the proposed route, and warned that what he described as the increasingly aggressive legal strategies being pursued by Green GEN Cymru risked making things much worse.

According to Mr Price, Baroness Morgan seemed to agree in principle, stating: “Now, just because they’ve got a legal right doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be sensible and sensitive and reach out and try and work with the communities. I think it’s in everybody’s interests to try and decrease the tensions in relation to this”, before stating that an increase in electricity demand required more infrastructure.

Speaking outside the Siambr, Mr Price said: “We’re facing the prospect of mass civil disobedience, the likes of which we haven’t seen in Carmarthenshire since the early 1960s, when the people of Llangyndeyrn blocked the path of surveyors wishing to build a reservoir. I have been out in these communities speaking to the affected residents and their anger is tangible and real.

“People feel targeted, and they feel afraid. They feel like nobody is listening, and they say that despite their efforts to create a dialogue with the company, correspondence has not been answered, and legal letters have continued to land.

“I am urging the company to re-think this strategy, and to get around the table with community representatives, both elected members and voluntary organisers on the ground, so we can agree an alternative way forward that de-escalates this situation.”

‘Unrepresentative’

Daryn Lucas, the managing director of Green GEN, responded: “Green GEN Cymru does not recognise the language that Adam Price MS is using and believes it is unrepresentative of the situation on the ground.

“We are currently hosting our second round of consultation on the Towy Teifi project. As part of the process we have already held five public community events with another to be held on March 29 2025. Details are available on our website.

“Over the first three completed events Green GEN Cymru welcomed just over 230 attendees, where the vast majority came in with genuine enquiries about the project and engaged constructively with members of our team. As an elected representative we would urge Adam Price to reconsider how he is positioning this debate.

“With electricity needs potentially tripling in Wales by 2050, new grid infrastructure is needed urgently to address the climate emergency, connect new renewable projects, help create and expand businesses and electrify our heating and transport systems. To build this key infrastructure that Wales needs, access for land surveys is essential to establish all constraints along potential routes for consideration in the planning consent process.

“Green GEN Cymru’s overwhelming preference has and continues to be to seek voluntary engagements with landowners and as such we and our external land agents have been actively engaged in negotiating these on Towy Teifi since January 2024 and the Towy Usk project since January 2023.

“To support this engagement, Green GEN Cymru pays for independent professional advice for landowners and has offered a compensation payment in advance for any potential disruption or disturbance caused during the surveys.

“It is always stressed that agreeing to surveys in no way restricts landowners’ ability to respond to project consultations or express their views on our proposals.

“We are working positively with landowners across all our routes, but unfortunately we have been unable to reach voluntary agreements with all.”

Right of access

Mr Lucas added: “Electricity infrastructure is of national significance and as a licensed IDNO we have rights of access to progress our projects.

“Where access has been denied, we have moved to the issuing of statutory notices under Section 172 of the Housing & Planning Act. Unfortunately, in some instances we have still been unable to gain access.

“The next step in application of our IDNO rights is to apply to the Magistrates’ Court to gain access under Section 173 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016. Prior to applying for warrants, landowners have been contacted on multiple occasions and made aware of the process that we are following. It continues to be the case that our preference would be to come to an agreement voluntarily with all landowners and avoid the warrant process.

“Since launching Towy Teifi and Towy Usk, we have issued over 30,000 consultation leaflets, held 21 in-person public consultation events and received over 5,000 pieces of feedback. This feedback has influenced changes to our routes. Towy Teifi for example now includes two sections of undergrounding near Merlin’s Hill and at Llandyfaelog.

“We have engaged with community groups and elected representatives throughout. Elected representatives were invited to a briefing prior to the launch of our second stage of consultation for Towy Teifi; we did not receive a reply from Adam Price MS.”