Our Press Release - 17th May 2023

PRESS RELEASE IN RESPONSE TO SSEN’S STATEMENT TODAY

SSEN claims it is ‘listening’ to the public and exploring alternative routes and mitigation measure for the Spittal to Beauly overhead line.

The public has made it quite clear to SSEN that OHL on huge 50m+ lattice towers and substations of 60 acres – 35 professional football pitches – are simply not acceptable in our rural communities. Any tweaks and pylon ‘hokey cokey’ is not enough to satisfy those passionate about protecting the Highlands. Their press release is vague and non committal.

Did SSEN listen to the public for the visually polluting Beauly to Denny line and the grotesque sprawling substation at Balblair? We have learned valuable lessons from the environmental vandalism that was forced upon the affected rural communities.

These transmission lines, according to SSEN staff, are for new wind turbines to hook into.

Communities B4 Power Companies commissioned a professional submission to be sent to SSEN and Ofgem asking for evidence of need for these transmission lines right across the Highlands – not just the Spittal to Beauly. We also asked for the over arching plan for the Highlands, for Scotland and the rest of the UK. That was sent six weeks ago and they have not responded to the questions asked. Their press release states this is a GB wide programme and yet have failed to be transparent with the paying public.

The figures we have don’t prove need, quite the opposite. As the consumer is paying for this environmental onslaught they have every right to demand detailed answers that can be open to scrutiny.

Scotland doesn’t need any more power and the transmission we have now can cope with wind farm developments that are operational or in planning now.

England cannot take any additional power and their grid will not be competent for a decade by which time with their own offshore wind, nuclear and subsea cables they may not even buy Scottish wind.

Lyndsey Ward, spokeswoman for Communities B4 power Companies, says:

“If this goes ahead the bottle necks in the grid will get bigger and the constraint payments for the over deployed wind fleet to switch off will increase as will consumers’ electricity bills to pay for this ill thought out farce. This is an exercise in making shareholders richer, consumers poorer and burying the Highlands under a tsunami of concrete and steel. SSEN are throwing communities along this line a rotten bone before the meeting in Strathpeffer tomorrow night in an attempt to deflect a furious public.”

Ends

Communities B4 Power Companies Contact: Lyndsey Ward 07899 035 135

Submission attached

17th May 2023