David Ross
Highland Correspondent
Energy giant SSE plc, now accepts it can lay a 100 miles subsea cable from
Caithness to Moray for £118m less than it had originally calculated.
SSE’s Scottish Hydro Electricity (SHE) Transmission Ltd had applied to
Ofgem for permission to charge its customers £1,236.2m to finance the
project. But the regulator said in October the cost would be £1,062.3m.
However in December the regulator agreed the cost would be more, some
£1,118m in total.
The link is planned to carry 1.2 gigawatts of green energy to the grid from
planned wind, wave and tidal projects in the north of Scotland.
Confirmation of funding arrangements is expected to bring SHE
Transmission’s total investment in the north of Scotland’s network for the
next financial year to around £600 million
David Gardner, SSE’s Director of Transmission, said: “The investment of
around £600m for financial year 2015/16 will see work commencing on the
vital Caithness-Moray subsea link, along with further investment in a
number of other approved projects, all unlocking renewable sources of
energy for decades to come.
“Importantly, local people will benefit from the hundreds of jobs it will
support, with more than 100 apprentices and graduates being trained with
the vital engineering and technical skills needed to serve the network
across the North of Scotland in the future.”
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