Council / ‘Limited power to control energy developments and no power to stop it’
Council chief executive responds to latest round of large energy project announcements
THERE is limited scope for the council and elected members to influence major energy developments in the isles, and certainly no power to stop them from happening.
What Shetland Islands Council can do, however, is try to make different developers work together to better coordinate their projects to reduce overall impact on the landscape and on island life.
That is the view of Shetland Islands Council chief executive Maggie Sandison, who said the local authority did not have the powers to say ‘yes or no’ to the next round of large developments.
“Our influence is quite limited,” she said, “and I hear people saying this needs to stop, but the power to stop this doesn’t exist.”
Sandison was speaking a day after a relatively well attended information event at Mareel on Tuesday where electricity network owner SSEN Transmission revealed what infrastructure developments are planned for Shetland over the next ten years to allow several on and offshore wind farm projects to go ahead.
The scale of the developments likely to come will make Viking Energy and its associated infrastructure look small.
To enable the Arven and Stoura offshore wind farms to connect to the national grid SSEN is planning to build a second HVDC cable to the mainland, a second large substation at Kergord, a ‘Northern Substation Hub’ near Sullom Voe, pylons to connect these two and a substation on Yell to connect two consented wind farms on the island.
In response to an increasingly volatile geopolitical situation, the main driver behind these projects has shifted from the energy transition to energy and national security.
Decisions on the direction of travel are being made far away from Shetland at UK Government level and SSEN’s role in this is little more than turning the national agenda into reality.
Sandison said Tuesday’s event took place as a result of pressure from the council for developers to release more information and not to engage with the public in a piecemeal fashion.
She said it was important for the community to understand what this latest phase of proposed developments would “collectively mean for Shetland”.
“Let’s look what the big picture looks like and not individual projects,” she told Shetland News. “It is really important that people see the scale of this now rather than seeing it as lots of small projects.”
She said the role of the council was to get developers to work together to minimise impact and limit consequences, wherever possible.
Sandison added: “It feels to me that the drive for energy security is creating an impetus to shift the energy make-up of the UK, and it feels that this will have a significant impact on Shetland.
“My concern is that community benefit needs to be realised. There are limits to what the council can do to manage or prevent developments, and certainly very, very limited capacity to stop developments.
“In terms of scale of this: it absolutely continues to red flag the question about fuel poverty in communities that contribute so significantly to energy security.
“It feels really important to me that we don’t forget the requests around the Shetland Tariff and the need to address the unfairness that is inherent […] in the energy system which means that the areas that are producing the energy are paying the most for their energy.”
Energy developers are planning several further information events, including today (Thursday) in the Voe hall where the team behind the Stoura offshore wind farm will be available between 2pm and 7pm.
SSEN Transmission will be at the Voe Hall on 6 October between 3pm and 7pm with information on the Kergord 2 substation and the possible routing of pylons.
This will be followed by further public events:
- 7 October, 3pm to 7pm, Mossbank Hall, Yell Sound subsea connection
- 8 October, 3pm to 7pm, Burravoe Hall, Yell substation and connections
- 9 October, 3pm to 7pm, Brae Hall, Northern Substation hub, Shetland HVDC Link 2
- 4 November, 3pm to 7pm, Mossbank Hall, Shetland HVDC Link 2
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