Powys electricity substation: National Grid protest

A demonstration was held in Abermule last month

Plans for a controversial new electricity substation have been shown to a Powys community.

The National Grid hosted the exhibition at Meifod Village Hall, where people against the plans are also expected to demonstrate.

Two potential sites at Abermule, near Newtown, and Cefn Coch, near Llanfair Caereinion, have been earmarked covering about 19 acres.

National Grid has said the electricity infrastructure needs upgrading.

Its plans are being put forward as the organisation says the upgrade is needed in mid Wales to cope with 10 planned new wind farms.

The company said it was part of a £16bn investment to upgrade infrastructure, to connect the grid with renewable energy development.

But it needs to build a substation in Powys to collect the power from the new wind farms and then connect the substation to the transmission network in Shropshire.

The substation will collect the energy from the farms, and a new 400,000 volt (400 kV) cable will take the power from the substation to the national transmission system.

The cable could be a new overhead power line, underground cables or a combination of the two. The National Grid is carrying out a study to find potential routes.

However, protesters say the plans would blight their communities.

When details went on show at Abermule last month, protesters stages their own "anti exhibition".

Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies has labelled the "awful options" as "madness".