Shetland Strategy Overview
The Shetland Islands are uniquely positioned to support Great Britain’s journey to net zero, with a growing number of renewable energy projects, such as both onshore and offshore windfarms, as well as emerging demand projects like hydrogen production.
The existing electricity transmission infrastructure on the Shetland islands requires investment to meet this growing demand. While the first Shetland High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) link was built to the maximum capacity available on the market at the time, it is no longer sufficient to support the scale of generation and demand now progressing through the development pipeline.
Rather than respond to each connection need individually, the Shetland Strategy approach aims to design an integrated transmission solution that supports both near-term developments, and future growth across Shetland.
This strategy is our coordinated approach to delivering new electricity connections across Shetland over the coming years. The need for this infrastructure has been confirmed by Ofgem and Neso, but there are still important decisions to be made about how that happens, and we would invite you to explore the relevant project pages and engage with us at our upcoming events to find out more.
Our Shetland Strategy Projects
Project Pages Coming Soon
We are in the process of building dedicated webpages for each of the following projects:
-
Northern Shetland to Yell 132kV Connection
-
Beaw Field
-
Scatsta Greener Grid
-
Energy Isles Project
These will be published shortly to give you more insight into the individual projects that comprise the Shetland Strategy.
Energy Projects Across the Shetland Islands
The design of the Shetland Strategy brings a significant amount of renewable energy to Shetland for consumption on-island, where it will enable industrial development and support local communities. Surplus energy will then be exported to the wider grid, playing a vital role in Scotland’s journey to net zero.
SSEN Transmission Infrastructure
| Point | Project | About |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Yell Windfarm Connections |
Connects the windfarm projects to Yell Substation. |
| 2 |
Yell Substation |
A substation to connect the windfarm projects and also offers opportunity for further expansion and resilience to the Distribution supply on the island. |
| 3 |
Yell Subsea Cable |
A subsea cable, with associated onshore circuit to connect Northern Substation Hub to Yell Substation. |
| 4 |
Northern Substation Hub |
A 2GW HVDC convertor station which connects to a 2nd subsea link to mainland Scotland. This will also be the site of substations which allow the island of Yell and the ScotWind and Greener Grid projects to connect to the Transmission network. This site will also have capacity to support future unconfirming projects like electrification of oil and gas platforms. |
| 5 |
HVDC Subsea Link |
A subsea cable connecting the new convertor site at the Northern Substation Hub on Shetland with a new convertor site on the Scottish mainland. |
| 6 |
Connection from Northern Hub to existing Kergord |
Circuits running between Kergord, Kergord 2 and the Northern Substation Hub. |
| 7 |
Kergord 2 Substation |
A substation which changes the network voltage from 132kV to 220kV. A higher voltage means less circuits north of this point, minimising our impact on communities and the environment. |
| 8 |
Existing Infrastructure |
The Kergord site is home to our existing HVDC convertor station, connecting Shetland to mainland Scotland for the first time through a subsea transmission link. It is also where the Viking windfarm connects. Under construction currently is a Transmission link to Gremista, where it will connect into the Distribution network. |
Third Party Developer Projects
| Point | Project | Location |
|---|---|---|
| A |
Energy Isles |
Onshore wind being developed by Statkraft. |
| B |
Beaw Field |
Onshore wind being developed by Statkraft. |
| C |
Greener Grid |
Hydrogen electrolyser being developed by Statkraft. |
| D |
Arven |
Offshore wind being developed by Ocean Winds. |
| E |
Stoura |
Offshore wind being developed by ESB. |
| F |
Mossy Hill |
Onshore wind being developed by Statkraft. |
| G |
Existing Infrastructure |
Viking Windfarm constructed by SSE Renewables. |
Further information
The official event document is available to read and download.
