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.

The Five Pillars of Community Wealth Building are:

1. Inclusive Ownership - developing more local and social enterprises that generate community wealth.
   
   
2. Spending - maximising community benefits through procurement and commissioning, developing good enterprises, fair work and shorter supply chains.
   
   
3. Workforce - increasing fair work and developing local labour markets.
   
   
4. Land and property - growing the social, ecological, financial and economic value that local communities gain from land/property assets.
   
   
5. Finance - ensuring that flows of investment and financial institutions work for local people, communities and businesses.

SSEN Transmission is part of the SSE Group - a champion of clean energy. SSE Group, and SSEN Transmission specifically, support CWB and recognise the potential benefits the approach can bring to local communities in Scotland.  SSEN Transmission’s Sustainability Strategy commits to sharing benefits with communities and to working with partners to support local projects, supply chains and housing solutions.

Great care is taken to ensure that local communities benefit from SSEN Transmission’s projects. We understand that our work can create opportunities and have impacts in the areas where we operate, and we believe it is our responsibility to create lasting positive effects. To achieve this, we work closely with local stakeholders and community groups to identify their needs and priorities, and we strive to incorporate these into our project planning and implementation. By working collaboratively and transparently with local communities, we aim to create a legacy of sustainable benefits.

In September 2024, SSEN Transmission launched our Community Benefit Fund with an initial value of £10 million. This fund is designed to support projects that create a positive impact in communities and over the coming years it is anticipated that significant funding will support local economic development, community, and wellbeing economy projects.  The fund can be used by communities and the third sector to support CWB projects across the north of Scotland.

The SSE Group is a long standing supporter of the Just Transition, which correlates closely with the pillars of CWB. SSE’s latest Just Transition Strategy was published in 2024. It builds upon SSE’s world first Just Transition Strategy 2020. SSEN Transmission’s Sustainability Strategy commits to creating a Just Transition Workforce Plan which will contribute to the CWB workforce pillar.

To enable a Just Transition, SSE Group has established a framework of 20 principles to guide decision-making, with ten KPIs to track and evidence progress, and a commitment to move to a place-based approach, ensuring work in impacted areas is rooted in local context and communities. SSEN Transmission is engaged in delivery of this.

The table below maps the CWB pillars against SSE’s Just Transition Strategy and gives examples of SSEN Transmission’s activity and commitments.