Watchdog asked to step into energy row

ENERGY regulator Ofgem has been urged to intervene in a row over grid connections for communities in the Western Isles who fear they could miss out on millions of pounds of income.

Seven small-scale wind and hydro projects say they were offered grid connections next summer by Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) but have now been told this will be delayed until 2014 at the earliest.

It means the communities will lose 6.6 million in income which would have been put back into local projects.

The seven projects, from Lewis to Barra, will have a combined output of 21.5 megawatts and produce a projected net income of 2.2m a year.

Eco-Heb, the umbrella body representing community wind farms in the islands, has now written to Stuart Cook, who is responsible for transmission and governance at Ofgem, pressing him to step into the dispute.

Last night an Ofgem spokeswoman said it has asked SSE to look at the projects again.

An SSE spokesman said: "All of the applications mentioned have been given an offer of connection in accordance with our licence conditions, however these are dependent upon the completion of both distribution and transmission network reinforcement works."