NorthConnect is a commercial venture set up to develop, build, own and operate a High Voltage 'Interconnector'.
The 1.4 gigawatt Interconnector will provide an electricity transmission link between Scotland and Norway. Electricity can be transmitted in either direct across the North Sea. NorthConnect will be delivered by five partners: SSE Interconnector Limited (SSE), Vattenfall UK, Agder Energi, E-CO and Lyse.
The project comprises the following main components:
• Onshore converter stations located at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire and either Samnanger or Sima in Norway along with associated infrastructure
• Onshore underground cabling requirements from landfall to converter stations
• Landfall sites in Sandford Bay and Norwegian Fjords
• Subsea interconnector between the UK and Norway. NorthConnect has undertaken a desk top marine survey to refine the subsea cable route corridor from Peterhead to Norway.
The proposed subsea cables will come ashore at Sandford Bay, to the south of Peterhead Harbour. The Direct Current (DC) cables will then follow the A90 down to the proposed Converter Station location, which is currently proposed to be sited to the south of the existing Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Limited (SHETL)
substation.
The cables will be buried in the ground. There will be no above ground features associated with the onshore buried cables to the Converter Station. The exact configuration of the onshore cable routes will however be subject to detailed design. These will predominantly follow land owned by SSE. During installation there will be a temporary working corridor along the route for a temporary haul road, area for spoil storage and the installation trenches themselves.
There will also be a length of AC cable from the Converter Station to a new proposed SHETL substation connecting into the Scottish Grid.
The £2billion project demonstrates further confidence in developing innovative projects within the Corridor. Planning permission for the onshore elements of the project, south of Peterhead, was submitted in May and the scheme could create up to 200 jobs.