Considering the Assembly has voted to support undergrounding of power lines, will the Cabinet Secretary put pressure on Western Power to underground the 26km Brechfa Forest grid connection in Carmarthenshire, where overgrounding of cable lines is set to commence?
Our preferred position on new power lines more generally is one of undergrounding. However, we recognise a balanced view must be taken against costs, which could render otherwise good projects financially unviable. The Brechfa Forest Connection was granted consent in October 2016 by the UK Government as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. We will continue our engagement with Western Power and National Grid to mitigate the visual impact of any potential new transmission lines.