Eryri Visual Impact Provision
Going underground in North Wales
The Visual Impact Provision project in the Eryri National Park aims to reduce the visual impact of National Grid’s overhead line across the Dwyryd Estuary from Minffordd to Llandecwyn.
Stakeholders have agreed that the best way to achieve this is to remove a section of this overhead line and replace it with electricity cables buried in a tunnel underground. It represents a major opportunity to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and environmental heritage of this precious landscape of Eryri.
National Grid sits at the centre of the transition to a clean, fair and affordable energy future, where tackling climate change and reaching net zero is a key priority.
We play a vital role in connecting millions of people to the energy they use safely, reliably and efficiently – in the UK and the US. But we also drive change through engineering innovation and by incubating new ideas with the power to revolutionise our industry.
As one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world, National Grid is pioneering ways to decarbonise the energy system; from building interconnectors to allow the UK to share clean energy with our neighbours in Europe, to investing in renewable energy generation in the United States.
National Grid owns and manages the electricity transmission network in England and Wales to which different energy sources are connected.
We are responsible for transmitting electricity from where it is generated (for example, power stations and large wind farms) to towns and cities, the main centres of demand. To do this, we use a national network of overhead lines and underground cables which operate at high voltages.
We are also responsible for balancing the system and making sure that the supply of electricity meets the demand on a second-by-second basis.
The Visual Impact Provision (VIP) project represents a major opportunity to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife, and environmental heritage within our most protected landscapes.
The VIP project is making use of a provision by Ofgem to carry out work that reduces the impact of existing transmission lines in English and Welsh Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and National Parks.
At National Grid we are passionate about playing our part in conserving and enhancing the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the landscape.
The most important task for us is to use this provision to achieve the maximum enhancement to our nation’s precious landscapes while avoiding unacceptable environmental impacts.
To ensure that we get this right and maximise the potential of the Visual Impact Provision project, National Grid is working closely and collaboratively with stakeholders.
