Power cables to be buried to preserve national treasure

BIGGEST GRID UPGRADE SINCE 1960S WILL GO UNDERGROUND AT BEAUTIFUL ESTUARY

- By ANDREW FORGRAVE Countryside and Tourism Editor

A NEW line of underground power cables is planned for the Glaslyn estuary in Gwynedd. The proposed work near Porthmadog is part of the National Grid's biggest upgrade since the 1960s.

Trenches will need to be dug under three railway lines through an area that regularly floods. Efforts to hide the cables, and so avoid unsightly pylons, has echoes of earlier battles to prevent ugly “wirescapes” destroying the area's spectacular landscapes.

The National Grid is upgrading the high-voltage power network in northwest Wales to cope with the ongoing switch to renewables.

The need to heat homes, drive electric vehicles and power factories with clean energy is predicted to double the demand for electricity by 2050.

This requires the existing electricity network between Pentir and Trawsfynydd to be “reinforced”.

Some elements are under way already, the largest being a new 3.3km tunnel beneath the Dwyryd estuary.

This is adjacent to the Glaslyn, where cables were put underground for 3.6 miles in the 1970s.

The decision to bury the 400kV cables followed a 1960s campaign led by environmentalist Cecily Williams-Ellis, sister-in-law of Portmeirion founder Clough Williams-Ellis.