Caithness-Moray link is completed
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THE Caithness-Moray electricity transmission link will support deployment of renewable energy in the north of Scotland for many years to come, the man who led the project has said.
Dave Gardner, director of transmission for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Transmission, was speaking after it was announced that the construction, commissioning and energisation of the link had been completed at a cost of around £970 million.
He hailed it as a significant achievement for SSEN and everyone involved.
"Caithness-Moray has been a highly complex project, requiring very high standards of project design, development, construction and commissioning," Mr Gardner said. "It has been delivered by a team of committed and skilled people, working closely with contractors and other stakeholders.
"It will support deployment of renewable energy in the north of Scotland for many years to come.
"Now an operational asset, we will closely monitor the link and associated infrastructure to ensure its continued success as an integral part of the GB transmission system.
"We would like to thank all those who contributed to the success of the project, from our own teams of engineers and support staff, our supply chain and the local communities who have played host to our project teams over recent years."
Caithness-Moray is the largest single investment ever undertaken by the SSE Group and is described as the most significant investment in the north of Scotland electricity transmission system since the 1950s.
The link uses HVDC (high voltage direct current) technology to transmit power through a 113km subsea cable beneath the Moray Firth seabed between new converter stations at Spittal (Caithness) and Blackhillock (Moray). Constructed over a period of four years, the project also involved work at eight electricity substation sites.
Completed on time and within the allowance approved by the regulator Ofgem, the Caithness-Moray link provides up to 1200MW of capacity to transmit power from the increasing sources of renewable energy from across the far north.
The link has already enabled turbines from Beatrice offshore wind farm (588MW on completion) and Dorenell onshore wind farm (177MW on completion) to connect to the national grid with a further 100MW of onshore generation in Caithness and Ross-shire due to connect in the coming months.
The completion of the link and other electricity transmission projects is expected to help take the Regulatory Asset Value (RAV) of SSEN Transmission to around £3.3 billion at March 31, 2019.
