06 March 2020

Councillors back nationally-significant energy development near St Fergus

Councillors have given their full support for a nationally-significant development near St Fergus Gas Terminal.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks will install a new electricity substation featuring a platform area, control building and associated plant and infrastructure on the western side of the A90 trunk road opposite the existing terminal.

At a full meeting of Aberdeenshire Council on Thursday (March 5), elected members heard that the development forms part of a wider electricity transmission infrastructure upgrade within the North-east of Scotland.

A number of substations and transmission lines are currently being upgraded or improved - in part to accommodate a number of large-scale renewable energy projects connecting into the region.

The development had already been approved by the local authority’s Buchan Area Committee earlier this year.

The proposal is the latest in a series of large-scale national and international energy developments proposed within the wider Peterhead area which have included a new substation at Boddam, the Hywind Offshore Wind Farm and linked battery storage facility as well as the North Connect Interconnector Station and associated interconnection to Norway. 

Councillors were told that these recent proposals and developments sit alongside long-standing energy sites such as the St Fergus Gas Terminal and Peterhead Power Station and reinforced the status of the wider Buchan area as a national and international energy hub of significant strategic importance.