Snowdonia Pumped Hydro’s Glyn Rhonwy project has become the fifth Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project that Copper has helped achieve consent.
Copper supported the team through the statutory consultation phase, advising on how to engage effectively with the community and key stakeholders. In addition to helping to deliver a meaningful consultation, we advised the team on how to analyse feedback effectively, allowing the project team to summarise, consider and respond to the community’s feedback before refining the details.
The project is Copper’s second DCO consent of 2017, following the North London Heat and Power Project, and our fifth in total to be given the go ahead (see map below for an illustration of Copper’s NSIP experience to date).
Located on the slopes of the Cefn Du mountain near Llanberis in Gwynedd, the project is a pumped hydro-electric storage scheme. At night, when there is lower demand for electricity, water is pumped uphill and stored in a reservoir. During the day, the water flows back down through a turbine to a lower reservoir, generating hydroelectric power. The project is using two former slate quarries for its reservoirs.
The project will help meet the urgent need for new electricity generation, particularly during peak demand. It will also help support and facilitate renewable energy development by compensating for the intermittency that wind power can experience.
Glyn Rhonwy is the first pumped storage facility to receive a Development Consent Order. Pumped storage is not explicitly covered by a National Policy Statement (NPS) but the project was considered under the overarching NPS for Energy (EN-1) and granted consent primarily because of its strong need case.
