Landowners across Scotland should be prepared for approaches from developers as energy giants seek land rights for essential electricity upgrades – although not everyone might be happy with the impact of the projects.

Throughout the last 12 months National Grid ESO has been developing its ’Pathway to 2030’ - an ambitious plan to extend and upgrade the electricity network throughout the UK to deliver clean energy from on and offshore wind.

In order to carry out these major essential improvements, extensive upgrades of existing transmission infrastructure, together with hundreds of miles of new overhead lines are being planned.

Head of Grid and Infrastructure at property consultants Bidwells, Clive Meikle said: “Key to the success of the Pathway is access to land and that means dozens of landowners will be approached to negotiate terms and, ultimately, compensation as improvement of the grid ramps up.

“This proposed programme is huge - in the north of Scotland alone, SSE plans to spend over £7bn on onshore electricity transmission infrastructure to deliver 2030 targets. Similar projects will take place in southern Scotland throughout the Scottish Power network area.

“In addition, further investments will be needed in due course to realise the full ambition of the offshore wind portfolio being developed through ScotWind and more announcements on this will come during 2023.

“This could see SSE investing somewhere between £12 and £24bn in the UK’s electricity infrastructure system during this decade.”

Electricity network providers are pressing Government for a revised regulatory framework that encourages faster decision making and greater certainty for the delivery of improvements.

Mr Meikle said landowners should consider the potential short and long-term impacts of new infrastructure on their property, such as disruption and land use limitations during construction – as well as the perpetual visual impact.

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He said: “Landowners in many coastal areas will also be approached by offshore developers keen to secure rights for site investigations and surveys. In tandem with the improvement of the public electricity networks, independent offshore developers are investigating how to connect their planned new offshore wind farms to the grid.

“Often this includes an underground cable from the shore inland to an appropriate point of connection, and the construction of substantial new convertor stations close to the point of grid connection.

“There are several mechanisms for challenging the imposition of these new lines, both in the planning system and through the rights of acquisition available to grid developers. However, these companies have enormous resources at their disposal which allow them to advance well researched cases for why their chosen route is the most appropriate.

“However, if discussed early enough, input from affected landowners can lead to design changes that ameliorate the impact of both the construction period and the finished product and I strongly suggest that professional advice is sought before entering any negotiation with a developer or their representatives.”

Projects currently planned include:

• 400kV onshore reinforcements, between Beauly, Blackhillock, New Deer and Peterhead; between Beauly, Loch Buidhe and Spittal; and between Kintore, Tealing and Westfield

• an upgrade of the existing Beauly to Denny line to enable 400kV operation on both circuits

• two 2GW subsea high-voltage direct current (HVDC) links from Peterhead to England

• a 2GW subsea HVDC link from Spittal in Caithness, connecting to Peterhead

• a 1.8GW subsea HVDC link from the Western Isles, connecting to the north of Scotland mainland

• a new HVDC Switching Station at Peterhead, ‘Project Aquila’, to accelerate the development of offshore wind.