A WIND Farm developer has pledged cheaper electricity for more than 1200 homes should their plan be accepted.

RES have proposed a 17 turbine project at Keirs Hill, Patna and they say the properties could be eligible for an annual electricity discount of £118 if the development becomes operational.

RES’ Local Electricity Discount Scheme (LEDS) is being offered in addition to a Community Benefit Fund for investment in local community projects.

It brings the total community benefits package at the proposed Keirs Hill Wind Farm to at least £255,000 per year - equating to more than £6 million over the lifetime of the wind farm.

Graeme Kerr, RES Project Manager, comments: “Keirs Hill Wind Farm is RES’ 18th project in the UK to offer LEDS, bringing the total number of qualifying properties across the UK to over 7,000, and in turn affirming our commitment to providing direct and tangible benefits to communities that host our wind farms.” The company say the scheme has been introduced as a new form of benefit for communities. They say the discount will be paid directly to each eligible property’s electricity supplier for the full 25-year operational life of the wind farm.

They also say there is no need for participants to change electricity supplier or tariff to benefit from LEDS.

Graeme Kerr continues: “The implementation of this innovative discount scheme is in response to feedback from communities near both existing and potential development sites which highlighted cheaper electricity as a practical benefit RES could offer.” The discount will become available once the wind farm is fully operational and registration to the scheme is open to all residential, business and community buildings (including schools, places of worship and village halls) that are located within the eligible area and are on mains electricity. At Keirs Hill, LEDS applies to qualifying properties within four kilometres of the proposed turbines.

RES has written directly to the properties around the site that are eligible to receive the electricity discount under LEDS, offering people the opportunity to register their interest in the scheme. The first payment of the discount, which is index linked, will be made within the first year of generation.

The planning application for Keirs Hill Wind Farm was submitted in November 2013 to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents and Deployment Unit under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989.