Shetland Strategy

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

Open Consultations

We held a series consultation events in Shetland earlier this summer as we shared updated proposals for our development projects. These followed previous consultation activities last year where plans were introduced for new substations and overhead line connections.

Since the last round of consultation events, the proposals were refined to balance feedback received from communities with technical and environmental considerations.

The project-specific event materials and feedback forms are below:

Hamarigrind substation and Kergord to Northern Hub Overhead Line alignment
Download Hamarigrind substation consultation booklet and Feedback Form
Download Kergord to Northern Hub Overhead Line consultation booklet and Feedback Form

Shetland HVDC Link 2 Northern Hub
Download Northern Hub information booklet and Feedback Form

Shetland HVDC Link 2 landfall
Download Shetland HVDC Link 2 landfall information booklet and Feedback Form

Yell substation and Energy Isles Wind Farm Connection Overhead Line alignment
Download Yell substation consultation booklet and Feedback Form
Download Energy Isles Wind Farm Connection Overhead Line consultation booklet and Feedback Form
Download Yell marine cable information booklet and Feedback Form

For more information, please contact shetlandengagement@sse.com.

The deadline for responses is 21 August 2026.

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

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.

image shows SSEN Transmission - Shetland - Events listing

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 2^nd 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, Hamarigrind and the Northern Substation Hub.
7	Hamarigrind 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.

The official event document is available to read and download.

We’ve created this document to share more details about the Shetland Strategy and gather your thoughts. This booklet will also be available at our events, but you can download a copy here to read in advance.

Download now

Image of SSEN Transmission employee with member of the public at an engagement event

Shetland Strategy