Proposed SSEN 400KV Spittal-Beauly overhead line project: FOI release

Information requested

The release of all internal reports, feasibility studies, and cost-benefit analyses that substantiate the need for this project, referring to the proposed SSEN 400KV Spittal-Beauly overhead line project.

Response

The answers to your other questions are contained in Annex A.

Some of the information you have requested is available from Scottish Government - Energy Consents Unit - Application Details, namely the Scottish Government's scoping determination. This sets out the scope and level of detail of information to be provided in an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report that should accompany an application under section 37 of the Electricity Act. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

The Scottish Government does not have the information (feasibility studies or cost-benefit analyses) you have asked for. This is because we have no role in the design or regulation of electricity infrastructure, aside from our statutory planning and consenting processes. No application for consent has yet been received by Scottish Ministers.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested, apart from the link provided above which is publicly available.

Annex A
With regards to the wider concerns which you have raised, Scotland’s ambitious climate change legislation sets a target date for net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045. Our contribution to climate change will end, definitively, within one generation. To meet Scotland’s targets, a rapid transformation across all sectors of our economy and society is required. We now stand in the midst of the next energy transition, to clean and renewable power. Scotland can, and should, play a leading role in this next revolution, just as it did in the growth of the fossil fuel economy in earlier decades.

An electricity system that is fit for the increasing demands of the future is vital to achieving this. We need to ensure the power that is generated from increasingly renewable sources can be transported to where it is needed – to our homes, businesses, and communities across Scotland and Great Britain.

The National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) is our national spatial strategy for Scotland. It sets out our spatial principles, regional priorities, national developments and national planning policy. Our potential for renewable energy generation is one of our greatest environmental and economic opportunities and the Scottish Government’s policy to support renewable electricity generation and expansion of the electricity grid is reflected in the NPF4, which was approved by the Scottish Parliament in 2023.

The NPF4 also makes clear that potential impacts on communities, nature and cultural heritage, including the cumulative effects of developments, are important considerations in the decision-making process which applies to applications for consent/planning.

In our previous correspondence of 12 November 2024 and 21 May 2024 we explained that the Scottish Government has no role in the design or regulation of electricity infrastructure, aside from its statutory planning and consenting processes.

Legislation and regulations relating to electricity networks are reserved to the UK Government with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) responsible for the strategic approach to transmission investment working with Transmission Owners across Great Britain. Regulation of electricity networks including approval of investment on infrastructure is carried out by the independent energy regulator Ofgem.

Under RIIO, Ofgem approve costs and funding for electricity transmission projects. When assessing them, they consider:

• financial costs of the project and whether they are efficient
• benefits of the project to consumers
• detailed design decisions
• other options and alternatives to the proposed solution

As part of their rigorous process, transmission owners must assess a range of possible designs that provide value to consumers.

No application for consent has yet been received by Scottish Ministers. The most appropriate way for members of the public and communities potentially affected to make their views known at this stage is to engage directly with SSEN who are responsible for developing their proposals before submitting an application.

When an application is received, a full public consultation is carried out, and Scottish Ministers invite representations from members of the public and consult the appropriate community councils, alongside other public bodies.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.