SSEN Banniskirk Substation

Name

SSEN Banniskirk Substation

Ward

Wick And East Caithness

Site

Land 360M NE Of Achalone Cottage Achalone Halkirk

THC Reference

24/04898/FUL

Applicant

Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Plc

Proposal

Banniskirk substation - erection of Air Insulated Switchgear 400KV substation building, HVDC converter station, associated plant and infrastructure, associated ancillary development, drainage infrastructure, temporary construction compound, laydown area(s), landscaping and earthworks

Deadline

26/01/2025

Status

Under Consideration

Comment

This is the application for the superhub at the Spittal end of the Spittal-Beauly overhead line. Not only will the 400V OHL start from here but this substation will also be the connection point for subsea cables planned from Sinclair Bay.

The main reason for objecting is the question of need: Our existing OHL is not used to full capacity because there is no market for the electricity produced here. Rather than building more infrastructure up here, resources should be concentrated on investment further south so that the infrastructure already existing in the Far North and in the whole of the Highlands can actually be used. As it stands, many developments that were built with the promise of helping towards NetZero and producing clean energy are actually not doing much for most of the time. Addressing problems in the South of Scotland and in England would also put a stop to the massive amounts of consumer monies spent on constraint payments. For example Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm which is linked directly to Moray has already received more than £1 billion in constraint payments over its 7 years of operation.

Another important reason for objection are the hidden cumulative effects: SSE admit that this substation gets built to connect future on- and offshore developments to the grid. These are highly speculative projects, none of which have planning permission yet, only a few of them are already talked about. In addition to SSE's own substation superhub and their pylon lines (which are at least partially shown in their visualisation), all these other developments will need their own substations close by and all the projects will have to be linked to the Banniskirk Hub with either pylon lines or underground cables. One of these substations has a Planning Permission in Principle. However, not even that one is included in the visualisations supplied by the applicant.

This leads on to the next reason to object: the sheer size of the development. None of the visualisations show the developments true size. The pictures and also all the maps provided are carefully chosen not to include anything that would work as a frame of reference. Viewpoint chosen along the A9 are selected so that only the bunding is visible. The size of the site is 0.89 km2 that is 890000 m2 or about 140 football pitches. The size of the fenced in area is 0.25 km2. Outside of the fenced in area are roads, water detention ponds, bunding, pylons, and construction compounds. The size of the Halkirk, the town closest to the development is 0.59 km2 for comparison. Spittal, the closest village is a mere 0.06 km2. There are houses right on the boundary of the site and more just across the road. They of course are tiny in comparison. And this is just for the SSEN Banniskirk hub and doesn't include any future extensions or any future substations from wind farm developers who want to connect into Banniskirk.

And then there are other grounds to object: In order to develop this site, 0.48 km2 of trees will have to be cut. They plan to blast away the bedrock to make space for their foundations and platforms. Eight archaeological assets will be completely destroyed through the development, amongst them a neolithic cairn which may have unknown associated buried archaeology nearby. About half the site is listed as Class 3 Peat, which will either be completely dug up and destroyed or severely compacted during construction. The site is locally known to host migrating geese and swans even though SSEN's bird survey didn't find any geese. The impact and the cumulative impact on residents will be massive both during construction and also during operation. There will be traffic, noise, vibrations, light pollution, and dust. Finally, SSE reckon that turning the landscape along the A9 into an industrial wasteland will not affect tourism.

Send objection to

The Highland Council

More Information Here

https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=SNBA1WIHFXW00