SSEN considering cable landfall site near Mavis Grind
SSEN Transmission is considering another possible landfall site in Shetland’s North Mainland for a proposed second subsea HVDC cable.
The site – named Minn Islesburgh – is located to the west of Mavis Grind.
It comes in addition to SSEN also exploring Braewick in Eshaness as a potential landfill site, as well as previous options including Grunnavoe and Toft.
A meeting of Northmaven Community Council heard last night (Monday) that SSEN is no longer pursuing Wethersta as an option.
There is already a subsea HVDC cable running from mainland Scotland to Shetland – a 600MW link between Caithness and Weisdale Voe.
This allows the 443MW Viking wind farm to export to the national grid, while it also can bring power up to Shetland.
A second subsea cable to Shetland – proposed to be three times the capacity at 1.8GW – is now planned, partly to facilitate offshore wind farms to the east of the isles.
Marine surveys are taking place as investigations continue into where the second HVDC cable should be routed and where it should reach land in Shetland, and these could go on until late July.
Earlier this year SSEN drew concern from local politicians and people in the community when it said it was now considering Braewick in Eshaness as a possible landfall site.
Then election candidate and Shetland’s new MSP Hannah Mary Goodlad said that Eshaness was a “nationally and internationally important landscape” – and warned SSEN to “steer clear” of the area.
A key message from SSEN Transmission’s presentation at the Northmaven Community Council last night was that no final decision has been made on where the landfall should be.
And lead project manager for the second HVDC link Alan Kelly stressed that the energy firm was “very aware” of Shetland’s Geopark status and the sensitivities around areas like Braewick and Mavis Grind.
He said the company intends to use the horizontal directional drill (HDD) technique at landfall which installs ducts underground through the shoreline, rather than digging a trench.
Kelly said SSEN’s position is that this is less impactful on the landscape and surroundings, adding that once work is finished there “really should be very little sign that we’ve been there”.
He said there would just be a “small, fenced-off box left behind”.
Wherever the landfall site is, he reiterated that cabling would only be taken underground to a proposed northern substation hub – planned for Toft or Scatsta.
Specialist consultants are being commissioned to assess onshore underground cable routing.
Referring to the new site under consideration near Mavis Grind, Kelly said this location would result in around 18km less onshore cabling compared to Braewick – 20km instead of around 38km.
He said this would be a cost saving but also an “impact saving”.
Kelly also told community councillors that SSEN started to look at the Braewick and Minn Islesburgh locations because they had ruled out a “significant number” of sites closer to the Toft/Scatsta area.
He said the northern substation hub is more likely to be located in the Toft area than Scatsta.
Kelly added that SSEN did initially look into bringing the second HVDC cable into the Sullom Voe area but said it was unlikely to receive marine consent due to the protections in the area.
He said the team were looking “quite seriously” at locating infrastructure in the former Scatsta Airport site, and “land the cable at the end of that runway”.
“But the feedback that we’ve received from the consenting authorities is that we will not get consent to lay a marine cable through Sullom Voe,” Kelly said.
He said SSEN is discussing with Marine Scotland whether HDD work underneath is possible.
“It would be an expensive option, for another HDD, but it would probably be the least impactful,” Kelly added.
He also reiterated that SSEN is still exploring the idea of taking the cable north and coming into Yell Sound to landing at Toft or the nearby Grunnavoe.
Kelly said landing in Yell Sound would be the “least impactful” but he said the area is heavily fished.
“The fisheries stakeholders have been pretty vocal about not wanting us to come in there,” he said, while he added that the currents in Yell Sound would make operations difficult.
Meanwhile Northmaven Community Council chairman John Parry described SSEN’s continued development in Shetland as “piecemeal” and in some instances a “fait accompli”.
Kelly said it has come in two phases, with the first having the Viking wind farm at its centre.
He said the planning processes for a wind farm, subsea cable or substation are all different.
The second phase is where Shetland is headed to, including the second HVDC cable, the northern substation hub, another substation station and overhead lines from the central mainland northwards.
Kelly referenced to regulator Ofgem’s aim to achieve clean power by 2030, and National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) plans beyond then, which “unlocks” ScotWind offshore wind and potential hydrogen projects.
“When the first phase was being planned, it wasn’t on the radar – the government was not thinking about the Crown Estate leasing round that ScotWind was successful in,” he said.
Kelly said SSEN has seen the anti-pylon petition which emanated from Voe, and letters that the council and individuals have written to its senior management as well as politicians.
“We’re looking at how we respond to that,” he said.
“We will try to work with [the] SIC so that we are grouping things together in a fair and reasonable way.”
The community council meeting was also told that there will be more public engagement events in Shetland in July.
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