Communities

Working with communities

The north of Scotland’s abundance of renewable resources means we have a vital part to play in helping deliver energy independence, securing future electricity supplies with homegrown low carbon energy, reducing our dependence on imported power from often volatile global markets.

Our electricity network will play a leading role in harnessing Scotland’s clean energy potential and delivering Scotland’s and the UK’s climate change targets through a significant investment in new electricity transmission infrastructure.

The communities of the north of Scotland are at the heart of our ambition for 2030. As we saw with the first renewable electricity revolution in the 1950s, the investment in the energy transition is an opportunity for people and communities to thrive and realise a lasting legacy in jobs, inward investment, and community regeneration. We are committed to make that happen.

We acknowledge that this new infrastructure will have impacts on communities. Some of these impacts are unavoidable but we are committed to minimising and mitigating local impacts wherever we can. That means avoiding population centres, historical landmarks and Scotland’s most precious landscapes.

As we build the infrastructure needed to transport our clean, homegrown energy, we are set to deliver one of the biggest investment programmes the north of Scotland has ever seen. We will ensure the benefits of this major investment programme are shared with host communities.

Our Priorities

Minimise impacts

We aim to maximise the positive outcomes and minimise any negative impacts of our assets and development on communities. This means delivering excellent community and stakeholder engagement, based on a genuine willingness to listen and collaborate for positive outcomes.

We are also committed to better understanding the impacts we have on communities, both positive and negative.

In particular, we will work to understand the cumulative impacts of our developments and to identify new and innovative ways to minimise negative visual impacts.

Share benefits

We commit to sharing benefits from the expansion of our network with communities in our operating area. We will do this in a number of ways. Firstly, our Community Benefit Fund will support communities across our operating areas to access funding to support local priorities. The fund will both enable local priorities to be realised, as well as delivering focused funding for a range of areas focused on the themes of people, place, and tackling fuel poverty.

Secondly, our Housing Strategy will both deliver the accommodation needed to house workers as we expand our network and help to tackle the housing and depopulation crises across the north of Scotland. We will work with housing sector partners to deliver at least 200 homes in our operating area.

Finally, we will work with our supply chain to deliver community benefit in partnership. See the Procurement section of this Strategy for further detail on supply chain requirements.