Cwm Brefi is the final community to be connected to the national grid

Residents in Cwm Brefi, in Ceredigion, will be able to use computers and fridges after their village became the last in Wales to be connected to the national grid on Tuesday.

Until now, the residents have had to rely on output from generators at home, giving them limited use for electrical items.

Without main power, they had to choose between watching television or using the washing machine.

If I use the washing machine I can't have anything else on in the house Julie Hutchings

They have also had use a torch or candles to stumble to the bathroom at night.

But now 197 poles have been set up across nine miles of land to allow the community to get switched on to mains electricity.

The campaign started in 1999 after residents Julie Hutchings and Eleri Davies complained about money spent on the ill-fated Millennium Dome in London.

Funding

"We were grumbling about the dome and how the government could pay for that and not fund mains electricity for our community," said Mrs Hutchings.

"Our generator is 40 years old and provides so little power that we don't use an electric kettle and if I use the washing machine I can't have anything else on in the house."

Because the generator was only on for six hours a day, problems have included not being able to set the video recorder, use a hair dryer or put up any lights at Christmas.

Julie Hutchings will soon be able to stop using candles at night

Also, the family could only have one light on when Mrs Hutchings' husband, a carpenter, was in his workshop.

Mrs Hutchings wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair and a host of other politicians for help.

But the campaign was kick-started at grass roots level by Llanddewi Brefi Community Council, just up the road.

A chain of meetings was then begun with the Welsh Development Agency and Ceredigion Council which resulted in a feasibility study of the scheme.

The application for funding the project was handled by local community group, Curiad Caron.

"This project is about people's basic human rights and it is horrific to think a community has to live like this in the 21st century," said the organisation's Dafydd Morse.

The scheme has cost �280,000 and was paid for by a �100,000 grant from Ceredigion Council, �5,000 raised from the owners of each of the homes and the hostel, with the remainder coming from European Objective One matched funding.

"This will mean a huge difference to our lives," said Cwm Brefi resident Eleri Davies.

"We live on a farm and we have to use the least powerful equipment such as power jets that are on the market because the generator can't provide enough power."

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