The National Grid has plans to upgrade the network across North Wales.

If plans are approved, work could begin as early as this summer to replace and add new underground cabling to connect cleaner energy to more homes and businesses across Gwynedd.

The upgrades will be between Pentir and Trawsfynydd substation sites, as well as replacing 5.8km of underground cabling beneath the Glaslyn Estuary and Porthmadog from Wern to Minffordd, and constructing a new substation south of Bryncir.

John Lamb, Director for Pentir to Trawsfynydd described this as a “significant milestone” in the project: “We need to reinforce and refurbish the existing electricity network between Pentir and Trawsfynydd to meet rising electricity demand and allow new sources of cleaner, home-grown energy from more affordable sources to reach homes and businesses.

“This will help to enable a clean energy future for Wales, make our energy supply more secure, independent and deliver long-term benefits to bill payers.”

The planning applications have been validated, which is an initial check by Cyngor Gwynedd Council to ensure the applications are complete.

The decision on the applications is set to come early this year.

If approved, work would begin in summer 2026 and would be fully operational by 2030.

National Grid state the works would be a boost to the local economies, creating more jobs, delivering a more secure network, and connecting cleaner energy from more affordable sources to homes and businesses.

Public information sessions were held last May, with 28 days of pre-application consultations in September.

The upgrades are part of the Great Grid Upgrade, billed as a major transformation of the UK’s electricity network, aiming to meet growing energy demand, ease pressure on the current network, support Wales’ clean power goals, and lower costs made when grid capacity is insufficient to move power to where it is needed.