A new power station in Swindon could be in the offing, as a dairy farm on the edge of town looks to diversify.

Conrad Energy an independent power provider has applied for permission to build a small ‘flexible’ power station at Wood Farm in Wroughton – run by Berkeley Farm Organic Dairy.

The idea is the gas-fired power plant would be used to generate electricity and feed it into the national grid during times of high demand, and especially when renewable sources aren’t producing enough.

The company wants to construct four generators which will be capable of putting out 7.5 megaWatts of power.

The generators will be supplied with mains gas, with no need for deliveries, according to the application.

It says: “The purpose of these flexible plants is to generate electricity at short notice to fill an ‘energy gap’ within the local electricity network.

“Traditional power stations are not designed to meet short term demand and fail to provide the flexibility needed.”

The application says that as more wind-powered and solar-powered energy is used, the National Grid has said more such flexible power plants will be needed as a back-up provision when renewable energy is not sufficient.

It says the plant, sited on an “under-utilised area of land” next to storage and livestock barns would not be in constant, or even regular, use: “It is important to not the role of the plant in contributing to the diversification and sustainability of the land owner Berkeley Farm Dairy.”

The owners of the land say that being allowed to rent out some land to the power generating firm would mean the rest of the site could continue as a dairy farm

A letter to council planners says: “This is a tremendous opportunity for us as – it makes use of an area of land that is currently redundant and cannot be used for farming purposes. It can provide a reliable income to supplement the volatile income form dairy farming.”

The letter adds that this summer’s heatwave and dry conditions made dairy farming particularly difficult – increasing the cost of cattle forage and bedding and reducing milk yield – it says: “We hope to have the security of the rental income to allow continued investment in our farming and milk-processing enterprises.”