A £500million contract representing part of the largest investment ever to be made in the electricity market since the 1950’s has been awarded.
The contract for building a new power cable under the Moray Firth between Caithness and Moray has gone to Swiss firm ABB, who will be responsible for the design, engineering and supply of two 320kv converter power stations.
One of the stations will be at Blackhillock in Moray which will be linked to a second site at Spittal in Caithness. ABB is expecting to complete the link between the two new stations by 2018.
Claudio Facchin, head of the firm’s power systems division, said: “We are pleased to support this major transmission project that will enable integration of a significant amount of renewable energy into the grid and supply clean, emission-free electricity to millions of people.
“ABB pioneered HVDC technology and continues to lead the way through innovation – as seen from several recent breakthroughs.”
The contract was awarded by SSE who are expect to accommodate a rapid growth in electricity generation from renewable resources – around 1200MW of wind, wave and tidal energy projects are now planned for completion in the region.
It was announced two years ago that hundreds of new jobs were expected to be created from the extension of the Blackhillock facility near Keith.