Application to lay Western Isles subsea cable

An application to lay a subsea cable to transmit output from wind farms in the Western Isles to mainland Scotland have been lodged with the Scottish government. SHETL, the wires subsidiary of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), hopes to run an 80 kilometre high-voltage-direct-current cable from Grabhair on Lewis to Dundonnell on Little Loch Broom in north-west Scotland. From there the cable will run underground for 76 kilometres before feeding into the transmission network at Beauly, near Inverness. SHETL has also applied to the Western Isles and Highlands councils for associated onshore connections. SSE's Andrew Robertson says that over 700 organisations and individuals have taken part in its public consultation process. "We believe that we have selected the optimum route for the connection including considering the issue of undergrounding," he says.