New Blackhillock 400kV Substation

Our Reports on Consultation across our three new overhead line projects and associated substation and convertor station developments have now been published. These reports provide a summary of the extensive feedback received during consultation, how this has been considered and confirmation of which routes and substations are now being taken forward to the next stage of development. 

Our Reports on Consultation are now available to download from the Project Documentation tab. 

Summary Reports on Consultation are also available for each of the three schemes and can be downloaded below:  

• Summary Report on Consultation Spittal to Beauly 
• Summary Report on Consultation Beauly to Peterhead  
• Summary Report on Consultation Kintore to Tealing 

A stakeholder webinar available for all to join will be held in the coming weeks to share the changes informed by the feedback. More information about the forthcoming webinar will be shared on our events page shortly.   

In further recognition of community feedback, we will seek to rationalise cumulative infrastructure impacts through the removal and undergrounding of existing transmission lines, where technically practical and appropriate, and subject to all necessary planning consents and landowner agreements. 

Work to identify and assess potential sections of existing overhead line where their removal will reduce cumulative impacts is ongoing, with an update expected as part of the next round of public consultation on overhead line alignments and more detailed substation designs in early 2024.  

We would once again like to thank all stakeholders who took the time to engage with our early consultation process. We will continue to engage with stakeholders ahead of consulting further with local communities and stakeholders in the new year, as we look to refine our proposals.

Over the course of this year, we have undertaken extensive consultation on plans to upgrade the electricity transmission network across the north of Scotland and have received a considerable amount of feedback from a wide range of stakeholders regarding our proposals. 

We recently advised in our next steps for 2030 network developments update that following assessment of consultation feedback and additional options analysis, we would publish our Report on Consultations (RoCs). These reports provide a summary of the feedback received and how it has been considered, which options we will take forward to the next stage of the development process and any changes to options initially consulted on.  

It is our intention to publish the RoCs for this project in the coming months. All stakeholders signed up for updates on the project will receive a link to the report and we will also issue Summary Reports to help ensure accessibility. 

These Report on Consultations mark the completion of the first round of non-statutory consultation, where we sought feedback on the corridor, route, and substation locations. We will be consulting further with local communities and stakeholders in the new year, as we look to refine the projects, therefore we welcome an open channel of communication and would like to reassure all stakeholders that there will be further opportunities to engage on this project.

Our Reports on Consultation and Summary Reports on Consultation are now available to download from the Project Documentation tab.

We have announced our next steps for our Pathway to 2030 programme of projects. We would like to thank everyone who has engaged with our teams and kindly taken the time to respond to our consultations.
Full details of the announcement can be found here:
Next steps for Pathway to 2030

Following an extended consultation period for the new Blackhillock 2 400kV Substation, we have reviewed feedback received through our project website, as well as all emails, phone calls and letters.

At the request of communities and stakeholders, we are further investigating the suitability of alternative sites. These investigations are ongoing, and at present, we are not yet able to confirm the suitability of any alternative sites and if we are able to change our preferred site option. We aim to conclude these investigations within the coming month to provide certainty for the community.

Upon confirmation, we shall provide a detailed update to the community and stakeholders on our mailing list and on the project web page. As part of our consultation process, we will also publish a ‘Report on Consultation’, the date of which we will confirm once investigations conclude.

We appreciate the feedback we have received so far and would like to thank the wider Keith community for their constructive input to this stage of the project.

Public consultation feedback period has now closed

We are committed to delivering a robust and transparent consultation process underpinned by inclusion and accessibility. As a stakeholder led business, we understand the importance of involving communities and key stakeholders throughout each stage of our development process.

We held an initial drop-in public consultation event in late March 2023, to share our approach to developing this project and the rationale behind our early proposals. 

The consultation remained open until Friday 5th May 2023, and we would like to thank all stakeholders who took the time to submit their feedback. We received a high volume of feedback and over the coming weeks the project team will work to analyse and closely consider feedback ahead of confirming next steps to help inform which of our potential substation sites we will look to take forward.

Once feedback has been analysed and next steps identified, further updates will be provided to interested stakeholders.

Consultation materials are in the Project Documents section of this webpage.

Should you have any questions, please contact the Community Liaison Manager Ryan Davidson on the details at the bottom of this page.

The consultation period is now open. You can submit your feedback here: https://www.ssen-transmission.co.uk/projects/project-feedback/blackhillock2substationfeedback?projectId=16593

Due to rescheduling of the event by 2 weeks, the consultation period has been extended and will now close on Friday 5 May 2023.

Although we have a set consultation period relating to this event, we will accept feedback and questions on an ongoing basis throughout the development of this project.

We are aware that there was an issue with the delivery of postcards detailing the rescheduled date for the event. The primary reason we rescheduled 2 weeks after the original date was to allow time for these to be delivered and provide sufficient notice to communities within proximity to the project.

They were due to be posted on Thursday 16^th March as per the information provided by our supplier. We have contacted them to understand why this has happened. Apologies if anyone was affected by this.

If you were unable to attend the event, for any reason, and would like a booklet posted out, please contact the Community Liaison Manager for the project. Contact details are at the bottom of the page.