SSEN Aberdeenshire pylon reroute triggers backlash from Scottish community

Residents have urged the electricity firm to explore other, available alternatives to “industrious pylons”

A community has ramped up its pushback against SSEN plans to build “monster pylons” that would tower above a primary school if approved, saying the electricity company is “way behind the curve”.

The Kintore-Tealing 400kV is an overhead line project that is part of SSEN’s £20 billion nationwide programme of transmission network upgrades to help meet renewable energy targets.

It has brought widespread contention across the north-east of Scotland because of the potential damage to the landscape and the project forming an inevitable eyesore for local residents if given the go ahead.

If the pylons get the go ahead, they will be located several hundred metres from Drumoak primary school (pic: Gareth Fuller/PA)

The overhead lines run through the Mearns, which is famous for being home to author Lewis Grassic Gibbon. After backlash from the group Save Our Mearns, SSEN removed a substation from the area and rerouted some of the overhead lines to “reduce community impact.”

It also means pylons will tower above the Aberdeenshire villages of Drumoak and Echt, which campaigners say will “destroy” the area and pose a safety concern to local primary schools.

This month, dozens of school children and adults – armed with placards – attended a protest against the newly proposed route.

The demonstration was arranged by local resident and retired chartered engineer Anne Shearer who has, with other members of the community, formed a new action group in the past week – Against Monster Pylons – to target the new route. The group is launching its first meeting on January 3 to press ahead with opposition to the refreshed plans.

Anne Shearer has been involved in organising resistance to the SSEN plans (pic: Anne Shearer)

“There is a huge local reaction, and it’s growing,” Mrs Shearer said. "It’s not an ordinary pylon line. They are talking about pylons up to 68m tall, which is at least twice the size or a normal one.”

Mrs Shearer said since the new route was put forward, there had been a meeting between Crathes, Drumoak and Durris community councillors and SSEN. But she claimed there has been no consultation with the Drumoak residents on the proposals.

“SSEN said the next consultation will be on where the pylons will go, not on whether they will go ahead or not,” she said. “They will completely destroy the area and they haven’t held a consultation.”

Mrs Shearer said the action group was urging the energy company to look at alternative methods for network transmission – subsea or offshore.

Dozens turned out to protest against SSEN's plans outside Drumoak Primary School (pic: Anne Shearer)

"We do not want to push these pylons onto another community,” she said. "We want SSEN to look at the other options available like underground cables on the route they’ve proposed, or have offshore cables.

“It’s clear SSEN is way behind the curve and I think there’s a lack of expertise because there are alternatives to these industrious pylons that would be far less destructive.

“In this part of the country, we do have huge offshore expertise and technology and subsea infrastructure and equipment. There’s absolutely no reason on earth why this cannot be run offshore.”

Mrs Shearer said the pylons would have a negative impact on Scotland’s international reputation for its beautiful landscape.

SSEN logo

Resident Eileen West, who lives about three miles outside Drumoak, was part of the campaign group to push for SSEN to reroute the pylons away from the Mearns. But she said the new route was “even worse” as it towers above a primary school in her local community.

"Instead of doing what we asked, which was to look at alternatives to these monster pylons, SSEN has just taken a marker and drawn another line on the map,” she said.

"We did not want to push the pylons onto another community. This is not nimbyism. This is lazy, profit-driven decision making from the company.”

Since the backlash, SSEN said the pylons would “at the very least be 250m from Drumoak Primary School”.

The company insists the electricity industry abides by guidelines from Public Health England on safe levels of exposure to electric and magnetic fields (EMFs), ensuring that all new equipment is safe.

But Mrs West said the community still had a huge concern for the health of local residents, particularly school children.

Echoing Mrs Shearer’s comments, she said SSEN staff were “out of their depth” when it comes to transmission network upgrades in rural areas.

“We had to point out at a particularly animated meeting at Peterculter that in the first route they had proposed an overhead line that went over a helipad,” she said. "They are out of their depth.

"SSEN clearly do not want to put in the investment and do the research. It’s lazy thinking, it’s the easy cheap route, and it’s insulting.”

Mrs West said there needed to be an overhaul in government strategy, not just how SSEN operated. “These companies don’t have the right to desecrate landscapes and upset thousands of people and threaten their wellbeing,” she said.

A spokesperson for SSEN said: “After comprehensive route planning and extensive initial consultations with communities and other stakeholders earlier this year, we are making a change to the initially preferred route for the Kintore to Tealing 400kV Scheme.

"The option being brought forward, which includes a new 2.5km section of route near Drumoak, represents a balance of numerous constraints in the area and considers community and environmental impact too. As our first round of consultation on Kintore to Tealing showed, stakeholder feedback is crucial in shaping our decision-making.

"In spring 2024, at the next round of consultation, we will be providing further details of the proposed new section of overhead line, which at the very least will be 250m from Drumoak Primary School. We would encourage all stakeholders to attend our consultation events and to continue to share their views with us.”

If consented, construction for the Kintore to Tealing 400kV Scheme is not expected to start until 2026 at the earliest.

The SSEN Transmission’s £20bn programme of grid infrastructure upgrades are being done to “unlock” the north of Scotland’s vast renewable electricity resources and transport that power to demand centres across the UK.

Offshore infrastructure is already being developed as part of this programme of upgrades. However, SSEN said due to the significant volume of power its needs to connect and transport from generation source to areas of demand, the Electricity System Operator concluded there was a need for both onshore and offshore network reinforcements.