News

Dear Shareholders

The AGM will be held on 11th July 2019, 7pm at the Corwen Sports Pavilion. LL21 0DU

This year we will be rolling out our first interest payment to shareholders. There will also be information regarding our first payment to a community project, more details to be given at the meeting. We feel it is important to start giving to the community as we are registered and advertised as a Co-operative and community Benefit Society.

There will be a chance to catch up on our activities over the year and learn more about the cooperative you are part of.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Kind regards

Secretary

You may have received details of the forthcoming special general meeting called to decide the future of the proposed hydroelectric scheme at Bonwm. The proposed Bonwm hydro scheme lies 1 mile West of the present Corwen hydro and is to be supplied by a stream that delivers more than twice the flow rate of the present stream.

It is a straight forward decision: The vote is, do we take the Bonwm hydroelectric scheme under the wing of the present Corwen Electricity Cooperative or not. If for any reason you have not had the details of the vote along with a full explanation of the scheme and a set of FAQ, please get in touch with the secretary.

The SGM is on Thursday  29th November 2018 @7pm. The venue is The Sports Pavillion, Corwen LL21 0DU

The secretary

CEC

Public meeting for a proposed second community hydro scheme for the Corwen area.

Cadwwyn Clwyd and Corwen Electricity Cooperative are holding a public meeting to discuss the potential for a community hydro power scheme at Bonwm near Corwen.

Come along to find out the latest developments for this scheme and listen to a detailed plan of how it will work.

Venue: Corwen Sports Pavilion

Date: Wednesday, May 30th 2018 at 7.00 pm

For additional information Tel: Cadwyn Clwyd on 01490 340500 or contact the CEC secretary

On December the 16^th it was exactly 12 months since the Corwen hydro scheme was commissioned.  Our estimated average annual generation is 135,000kWh.  Despite a very dry spring we have come close to hitting this target having generated 130,000kWh by the end of play on the 16^th December 2017.

We have had a busy year snagging and getting used to the scheme which is running very smoothly.  In the New Year the cladding on the turbine house will be finished in time for our official opening in May (final date TBC).  We have also worked with Denbighshire Country Side Services to secure EU funding to improve some of the walling around the turbine house and entrance to the Pen y Pigyn woodland.  In 2018 these walls will be rebuilt and or improved and local people will be given the chance to learn how to dry stone wall.  The funding secured will pay for an instructor to train people on dry stone walling around the hydro scheme site.  If this is of interest to you then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us and we will make sure you receive more details.

We continue to look for new opportunities and are working with Cadwyn Clwyd to explore the feasibility of a 100kW scheme at Bonwm just outside Corwen.  We will know more about the viability of this shareholder run scheme in early 2018.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

From the all the directors of Corwen Electricity Cooperative

Progress report 6th June 2017

We are pleased to announce that the construction phase has now been completed. Commissioning is ongoing and should be completed by the end of July(2017)

The turbine has been running and making money since December 15th 2016. We are very pleased with the output so far even though the rainfall has been below average. The AGM is approaching soon and we hope to have some more details about returns for shareholders, final accounts of the project and income from the turbine so far. (All invoices are not yet processed but it looks promising to be at or better than we budgeted for)

Details of the forthcoming AGM will be published soon.

22nd October : We have just reached the 100,000 kWh mark and it is looking good to reach our predicted generation for the year.

4th October 2017

Dear Shareholders

The final payments for the project have been made and this means the scheme can at last receive its feed in tariff payments. The final project cost came in below budget by £5000. The finishing touches to the turbine house are nearly complete (stone and timbre cladding) and it is looking very good. kWh generation has kept up with the expected total for the year, we currently have generated just over 90,000 kWh and we expect a minimum of 120,000 kWh with two and a half months to go to complete the first year of generation. (14th December 2017)

The application for the tax certificates from the taxman has dragged on a bit too long. We are responding to the taxman’s requests as quickly as we can but this is a two way process and it has had its hold ups along the way. We can only apologise for this delay and assure you that we are doing everything possible to expedite the application process.

We have had several visits from shareholders including a visit from the AONB recently. We would encourage you to book in and have a tour of the project which includes the turbine house, pipeline route and a visit to the source of the water for our hydro project.

The Secretary

CEC

We are well on schedule with construction at Corwen, the pipework is complete and the turbine and generator are all in place. There are plenty of photos and videos on the Corwen Electricity facebook page at  www.facebook.com/corwenelectric

Great progress has been made over the last two weeks.  The pipe has now crossed the forestry track and is connected and buried from the forebay tank at the reservoir down to within 15 meters of the turbine house.  David Roberts has begun in earnest on the turbine house it is beginning to take shape.  We expect to begin block work for the turbine house in the next 10 days.  This is where the focus will be for the coming weeks.

CT Roberts and HGC have now left site and will return at the end of November or earlier December to connect the last 15 meters of pipe to the turbine house.

Cutting the Sod

WE are pleased to say that work is now progessing well on site. Most of the pipe route has been cleared of tree stumps and the trench for the pipe is being dug. The trench work is encountering significant volumes of rock but this is proving to be relatively easy to remove.

In the meantime, the penstock pipe has been delivered and the team are working on butt welding together 48m continuous lengths of pipe in preparation for towing these into place along the trench.

Trial excavations have also been made on the site of the turbine house to allow us to refine the final design of the foundations to be used for this structure.

We are really pleased to say that our project has been shortlisted in a national award for community energy! M&S Energy will be awarding two national awards of £40,000 and £20,000, regional funding awards for projects across Great Britain that require a maximum of £12,500 and a Judges’ prize of £15,000 for the most innovative or inspiring project. Following the initial shortlisting phase, the competition is now open to the public vote.   We have been shortlised in the Regional Category for North Wales, Cheshire, and Merseyside and could win £12,500.

We now need your help – urgently – so we can win this award.  Please get as many of your friends, family, colleagues, and neighbours primed to vote for the project.   It will be up against projects in some big cities, such as Liverpool, so every single vote counts.

We will be sharing the link and some pictures you can use on Facebook and Twitter here early next week.