Highland electricity network upgrade plans raise fears over scale of Scotland substation site

Plans have been set out to upgrade the electricity transmission network across the Highlands to help accommodate new offshore and onshore renewables schemes.

As part of the development, the network provider will build new overhead lines, subsea and underground cables, connectors and substations.

But campaigners have raised concerns over proposals for a new 400kv substation at Fanellan, near Kiltarlity, claiming the area involved is 14 times larger than the site they were consulted on last year.

A proposal of application notice (PAN) lodged by Scottish and Southern Energy Networks (SSEN) shows an area spanning more than 350 hectares – about the size of 350 rugby pitches.

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However, SSEN insists designs have “not significantly changed from what has been shown to date”, with the main infrastructure much the same scale as previously suggested and many elements included within the development boundary only temporary during the construction phase.

The company has published a statement to allay people’s fears.

It said: “As well as the actual substation site footprint, the PAN boundary has to include all other site requirements, including any temporary site compounds, temporary and permanent drainage, site access and on-site parking, laydown and storage areas for materials and excavated soils, as well as hard and soft landscaping proposals. 

Energy network provider SSEN is working on a major upgrade to the electricity transmission network in the north of Scotland, including overhead lines, offshore and onshore cabling and new substations, costing more than £10bn. Picture: Getty Images

“Many of these requirements will be temporary, during the construction phase, and will be permanently removed upon completion of the project.

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“The PAN boundary, therefore, does not represent the permanent footprint of the substation itself but indicates the full development area.

“At our initial site selection consultations in 2023 we provided an illustration of what each proposed substation may look like once completed and their respective locations, but these did not detail the temporary construction requirements, nor any permanent landscaping, drainage or accesses.

“At that time these elements had not yet been designed and therefore the full extent of construction works, which would be used to inform a planning application red line boundary, could not be shown.

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“The substation footprint at this time is unlikely to differ significantly from those initial illustrations.”

The upgrade, costing more than £10 billion, includes power lines from Spittal to Beauly and Beauly to Peterhead, a subsea cable between Spittal and Peterhead and a subsea/onshore cable between Beauly and the Western Isles.

It is part of National Grid’s UK-wide Pathway to 2030 initiative.