Scottish energy company SSE has completed the £970m Caithness-Moray project, a 113km subsea transmission link in Scotland.
Image: Cable drums used in the Caithness-Moray transmission project. Photo: courtesy of SSE.
The company said that its subsidiary Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Transmission (SSEN Transmission) completed the construction, commissioning and energization of the Caithness-Moray project on time and within the allowance approved by Ofgem.
The subsea transmission project is capable of delivering up to 1.2GW of power from the increasing sources of renewable energy generated from the far north of Scotland, said SSE. The electricity supplied by the transmission link is equivalent to the power consumption needs of around 2,000,000 Scottish people.
The link uses high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology to deliver power via a subsea cable laid under the Moray Firth seabed between newly built converter stations at Spittal in Caithness and Blackhillock in Moray.
The designing, engineering, supply and commissioning of the two 320kV HVDC Light converter stations at Spittal and Blackhillock were handled by ABB. The company also supplied submarine and underground cables for the Caithness-Moray project covering a total transmission length of around 160km.
NKT was also part of the transmission project, handling the designing, manufacturing and installation of the 320kV HVDC submarine and underground cable system. The installation of the submarine cable system was executed by the company’s purpose-built cable laying vessel NKT Victoria.
The Caithness-Moray project, which took four years for its construction, also saw work carried out at eight electricity substation sites in addition to two overhead electricity line reinforcement projects.
SSEN transmission director Dave Gardner said: “Caithness-Moray has been a highly complex project, requiring very high standards of project design, development, construction and commissioning. It has been delivered by a team of committed and skilled people, working closely with contractors and other stakeholders.
“It will support deployment of renewable energy in the north of Scotland for many years to come.”
SSE revealed that the Caithness-Moray project has enabled connection of the Beatrice offshore wind farm and Dorenell wind farm to the national grid. The company expects the transmission link to connect an additional 100MW of onshore power generation in Caithness and Ross-shire to the grid in the coming months.