On the UK side of the link, the sub-sea cable will come to land in Scotland near Long Haven Bay, south of Peterhead. A High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable will be required onshore to carry the electricity from the landfall location to the converter stations. The electricity will be converted from HVDC to High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) in order to connect to the National Grid. An HVAC cable is then required to connect the converter stations to a substation which is where the interconnector will join to the National Grid.

Construction

Following development and detailed design work, and dependent on all required permits and concessions being in place in both the UK and Norway, it is anticipated that construction will happen between 2021 and 2024.

The construction of the converter station and HVAC cable in the UK will last approximately 30 months. The majority of works will be carried out during the day to minimise noise impacts to local residents, however from time to time there maybe requirements to work during evenings, weekends, or at night. These activities will be strictly controlled to minimise nuisance impacts on local residents.

The construction will be undertaken in 4 phases: preliminary works, site preparation and stage 1 landscaping, Converter station build, HVAC cable installation and landscaping, and reinstatement.

Further information about the construction of the UK Converter Station and onshore AC cable connections are contained within the Environmental Statement.

Permitting

NorthConnect recognise that due to the scale of the development and its proximity to designated areas there is a potential to have an effect on the environment. These effects need to be understood to allow appropriate avoidance techniques and mitigation to be identified. The regulators and their statutory consultees required this information to inform the decision making process. NorthConnect carried out a voluntary EIA and produced a voluntary Environmental Statement (ES) to support the planning and marine licensing applications for the HVDC cable.

A scoping report was submitted to Marine Scotland in April 2016 to seek agreement from all key stakeholders on the assessment methodologies to be utilised as part of the EIA process. Scoping opinions were received from Aberdeenshire Council in May 2016 and Marine Scotland July 2016. Applications were then submitted in 2018 and approval was granted by Aberdeenshire Council in January 2019 and Marine Scotland in February 2019.

Converter Station & Cables

NorthConnect has received planning consent for the converter station on the ‘Fourfields’ site near Boddam, Peterhead and cable route connecting the converter station to the Peterhead substation. Aberdeenshire Council unanimously voted to approve the planning application at their meeting on the 27th August 2015.

HVDC cable

The planning process for the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables that will transmit electricity between Scotland and Norway under the North Sea, started in 2016.

In order to complete an environmental impact assessment, a number of surveys were undertaken which considered a full range of environmental and socio-economic impacts in order to determine the exact route that the onshore and offshore cable will take. This includes seabed surveys, bird surveys and ecology surveys.

Aberdeenshire Council unanimously voted to approve the planning application at their meeting on the 17th January2019 and the Marine Scotland licences were issued in February 2019.

Seabed Survey

A corridor between the UK and Norway has been identified taking a number of aspects into consideration. The final cable route design has taken into account input from stakeholders and results of the detailed subsea survey.

UK nearshore subsea survey work, within the Buchan Ness to Collieston Special Protection Area (SPA), was undertaken in winter 2016/17 to avoid the bird breeding season. Offshore surveying was undertaken in Summer 2017.

The cable route survey provided information to support the assessment of marine effects on commercial fisheries, ecology, archaeology, seabed and water quality. The outputs of the survey will also aid in the identification of offshore cable protection requirements and appropriate installation technique selection.