Coed y Parc Dam

    

Up to 2000 there had been increasing concerns for the management of the dam, which forms the reservoir of Llyn Coed y Parc. In 2000 the Penrhyn Estate wanted to lower the crest of the dam which would have destroyed the lake. This was opposed by the community and Gwynedd Council denied planning consent for the work.  The dam was then listed by CADW as a grade 2 historical structure. This led to Penrhyn Estate trying to divest itself of its responsibility, and eventually to the formation of Coetir Mynydd, which was formed in the first place for the express purpose of taking the over the woods, lake and dam.

One of our first Coetir Mynydd volunteer days was to clear encroaching vegetation from the dam face and crest. Glass tell-tales were installed to monitor movement of the dam. Dam safety is a concern and we have installed warning signs around the dam. There was a proposal to fence along the wall by the road so we could remove the unsightly fence on the dam but feedback on this was negative so for now the gated fence on the dam remains in place.

From the start our intention was to develop a micro-hydro scheme on the dam with the objectives of:

(a) combining this with necessary maintenance work on the dam in a funding application

(b) providing an income for Coetir Mynydd which could be used to fund management of the woodlands and dam

(c) as a contribution to renewable energy generation in Wales.

Work on this proposition has been slow – some of it necessarily slow (the collection of a year’s worth of water flow records), some of it bureaucratic (waiting for a pre-assessment for an abstraction license by the Environment Agency) and some tracking down funding for pre-feasibility and feasibility studies.

We have now reached the stage of having the preparatory work done and the next steps are to make a collective decision on what we will do and to then prepare a business plan for the preferred option.

The reports on the potential of the Coed y Parc dam for microhydro can be downloaded from the links below.

Pre-feasibility Study

Feasibility Report

Environment Agency letter

We would like to acknowledge support for work on the micro-hydro project from:

First Hydro – automatic water level recorder

Environment Wales – funding for pre-feasibility study

Waterloo Foundation – funding for feasibility report

  • Documents / Dogfennau

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