Organisations developing Wales’ electricity infrastructure say stronger community involvement is essential to delivering the grid capacity needed for a more electric economy.
As Wales plans major investment in renewable generation and electricity networks, firms involved in development, grid delivery and public engagement are increasingly aligned on the importance of placing communities at the centre of decision-making. They told Business News Wales’ GRID podcast that early and credible involvement is critical both to improving project design and to securing public confidence in new infrastructure.
At Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru, public involvement is seen as central to making robust decisions about new renewable energy projects. Head of Public Involvement Dr Catrin Ellis Jones said engagement should focus on shaping the best possible infrastructure, rather than seeking consensus or revisiting policy decisions that sit elsewhere.
She said involving communities earlier in the process leads to better outcomes than announcing plans and then defending them. Projects can look very different depending on local context, whether they are located in densely populated areas or more rural parts of Wales, and that variation requires engagement approaches that are flexible and iterative. Combining digital consultation with face-to-face conversations, she said, allows developers to reach a broader cross-section of communities while also enabling more detailed discussion.
Catrin also pointed to the complexity of the electricity system itself, spanning generation, distribution and transmission, and the challenge of operating in an environment where information and misinformation are widespread. She said demonstrating that engagement is representative, and that feedback has genuinely influenced decisions, is essential to establishing credibility.
For grid developers, those challenges are often heightened. At Green GEN Cymru, which is developing a new electricity distribution network to connect renewable energy projects across Wales, consultation is described as both difficult and necessary.
External Affairs Manager Owen Llewellyn Jones said that while infrastructure such as pylons can be contentious, engagement can materially strengthen projects when communities are willing to participate. He described consultation as a staged process, where feedback is gathered, reflected upon and then used to inform subsequent designs, even where not all requests can be accommodated in full.
Owen said community input has led to route adjustments and design changes across Green GEN Cymru’s network, often informed by local knowledge that was not apparent during early desktop assessments. That engagement, he said, improves projects and helps demonstrate that consultation is meaningful rather than symbolic.
He also said that explaining the need for increased grid capacity is an important part of those conversations. As transport, tourism and business operations become more reliant on electricity, grid infrastructure increasingly underpins economic development. In parts of Mid and West Wales, awareness of existing grid constraints already exists, making the case for additional capacity easier to understand. In other areas, he said, the need for investment is less well understood and requires clearer explanation.
Alongside developers, communications specialists argue that how engagement is designed is as important as the message itself. Clare Jones, Founding Director of Grasshopper Communications, said infrastructure projects often encounter difficulty not because communication is absent, but because engagement reaches some voices repeatedly while others are missed.
Grasshopper is developing best-practice guidance for Welsh Government to support infrastructure planning, including a practical engagement toolkit for developers. Clare said the focus is on encouraging an ongoing, circular approach to consultation, where engagement begins early, feedback is clearly fed back, and conversations continue as projects evolve.
She said evidence suggests public opinion is often more balanced than consultation events alone might indicate, with vocal opposition not always representative of wider views. Establishing credibility early, she said, depends on preparation, stakeholder mapping, clear information and ensuring project teams are aligned on how engagement is delivered.
Across the sector, organisations involved in electricity infrastructure continue to point to the scale of change ahead as Wales moves towards a more electric economy, and the practical challenges of delivering new generation and grid capacity alongside communities with differing needs, expectations and levels of confidence in the process.
Hear more in the GRID podcast episode Power to the People – Communities and the Future of the Grid. Listen to the podcast here.
