BEIS extends planning permission for repowering of Welsh windfarm

Scottish Power has been given five more years by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to repower the oldest wind farm in its portfolio.

The department issued a letter last Friday informing the company that planning permission for its application to repower the Llandinam wind farm in Powys, mid-Wales, has been extended by five years.

The existing windfarm at the site was constructed in 1992 and consists of 103 turbines with a generating capacity of 31MW. Scottish Power’s subsidiary CeltPower wants to replace them with 34 larger turbines up 121 metres tall and with a total capacity of 102MW.

CeltPower secured consent for the plans in September 2015.

However, SP Energy Networks – Scottish Power’s electricity distribution arm and the connection provider for the area – has no current plans upgrade its mid-Wales network and advised the applicant that a developer-based solution is “the only way forward”, according to the letter from BEIS.

CeltPower has said such a solution could be worked up involving RES’ proposed 30 turbine wind farm at Llanbrynmair, also in Powys.

However, the Llanbrynmair application is currently in the process of being redetermined by the secretary of state for business and energy, meaning that the proposed grid solution can only be progressed once this process is completed.

CeltPower applied for its planning permission to be extended in order to allow more time for this solution to be developed.

The letter, issued by BEIS head of infrastructure planning, Gareth Leigh, extended the lifetime of the original consent by five years to 7 September 2025.

He wrote: “There is a continuing need for renewable energy schemes, such as the current application, which would justify granting the variation requested.”