Energy / ‘Underutilised’ hotel and accommodation camp both in mix to house SSEN workers during energy projects
Energy giant also defends potential use of pylons as better for the environment
A HOTEL, an accommodation camp and serviced accommodation are among the options being considered by SSEN Transmission to house the workers it needs for upcoming energy projects.
The energy giant is currently in talks with Shetland Islands Council (SIC) and Hjaltland Housing Association about where its workers will stay while constructing yet-to-be approved substations at Kergord and in the North Mainland.
SSEN is working with the SIC to identify suitable housing solutions, which then will be presented to local communities to bolster the housing stock in the isles.
With a series of consultation events being held this week, SSEN has said it is exploring options including “permanent housing”, the redevelopment of existing properties and a “temporary accommodation village”.
Another option proposed is using an “underutilised off-season hotel”.
Local authority engagement manager Allan McEwan said SSEN has held “a lot of good conversations” with the council about what it would like to see.
He added this was at “very early stages”, adding it was SSEN’s intention to minimise impact on hotels and serviced accommodation in order to ensure adequate capacity for tourists and other visitors to the islands.
Lead project manager for onshore projects Cath Swan said it was likely to be “a mixture” of different housing types in different locations, to suit the work they needed to carry out.
SSEN was holding the first of three more consultation events yesterday (Tuesday), focusing on its Yell to North Mainland connections – including a Yell substation – to power the Energy Isles and Beaw Field onshore wind projects.
They will move to the Burravoe Public Hall in Yell tomorrow for a follow-up, before an event in the Brae Community Hall on Thursday which will focus on proposals for a Northern Substation Hub.
A key driver of that is a second HVDC cable from the UK mainland to Shetland, which will then link to a proposed second Kergord substation.
No decision has yet been made on where the HVDC 2 cable will come ashore in Shetland.
However, SSEN lead project manager Alan Kelly said the company was exploring Wethersta as a potential landfall site.
“We’ll be consulting on that on Thursday night,” he told Shetland News.
“The idea is that by Christmas we should be able to have listened to the community and come up with something that is minimising the impact.
“This week we’ll show them how we’ve narrowed sites down so far and what we’re thinking.”
Another key consideration is the introduction of new overhead power lines – described by some as “pylons” – which are set to be introduced in one of three proposed routes across the isles.
The structures, which would be larger than those that run between Tingwall and Sandwater, have proved controversial due to the perceived visual impact they would have.
SSEN is proposing to build 38m tall “lattice” towers from its proposed new Kergord 2 substation to its Northern Substation Hub, at a rate of three structures per kilometre.
These towers are around a quarter of the size of a Viking Energy wind turbine, but are double the size of the current “trident” energy poles running through Tingwall.
Smaller 132kV lattice towers, at 28m high, will link the existing Kergord substation to the possible second building.
Swan said that, given the towers would have one 220kV line running through them so would not stand side-by-side, they are considered to be “less visually imposing”.
“We appreciate there isn’t that impact on the island at the moment, but we think its would have less of a visual impact,” she said.
“When we put the proposal to Ofgem they came back and asked why haven’t we gone for taller structures, because that would provide additional capacity going forward.
“But we’re keeping it down because of the visual impact that would have. We’ve done our assessments and we’re very satisfied this is sufficient for what is coming in the future.”
Another thing often questioned is why SSEN does not run the cables underground instead, in order to fully mitigate against visual impact.
However the company has continually said Ofgem would not be in favour of this because it would not provide value for money.
Swan said that was definitely a key factor, but she added that the main reason for using overhead lines was environmental.
“Peatland is very protected under the national planning framework, so the impact of the towers on the ground is that much less for the environment,” she said.
“It’s a real balance between a number of factors. Cost is a factor, because it is more expensive, but from an environmental perspective it would be our preference as well.”
Kelly believes the impact of Storm Amy shows the need for the stronger lattice towers in the isles.
“With the storms in mainland Scotland, there was concern about power cuts where poles were coming down,” he said.
“Those really were wooden poles, none of those were lattice towers. They’re not vulnerable that way.
“Some people say that undergrounding improves the resilience, that’s not something we agree with. Lattice towers are extremely resilient.”
SSEN are not yet showing the public what the towers could look like in Shetland, until a route for the overhead lines is selected.
That, Swan said, was to avoid “unnecessary anxiety” from people or landowners about seeing a tower in their area.
All three encouraged people to come along to any of the events this week, saying their views will be heard and listened to.
Kelly admitted they knew these projects are “really unpopular” – but said they had a licence obligation to deliver on them.
The SSEN project manager said he believed that people attending last month’s Shetland Strategy event had “started to accept the projects were going ahead”, and wanted to help shape them.
“People were coming to us and saying, ‘this is a really important habitat’ and ‘this area is next to a school’,” he said.
“That’s the dialogue we really want to get into, so we can understand how we can minimise the impact.”
And Swan added they were always keen to hear if there was “anything we’ve missed” or “something we’ve not factored in”.
“We want to really encourage people to come and engage, come and help shape it so it’s the best possible outcome for all involved,” she said.
“It isn’t a quick process, but I would hope to the public that’s reassuring, that they are being listened to and that there’s time for change.”
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