Our Local Funds

Local Funds are available solely to communities who are situated close to new infrastructure, supporting projects that aim to positively impact local communities. 

The Transmission Regional Fund aims to support strategic projects across the north of Scotland which have a significant and transformational impact beyond more than one community.

Four SSEN Transmission projects have been identified as suitable for preliminary community benefit funding with the aim of providing a range of funds that represents the SSEN Transmission network area. This means that each fund will differ in geographical area, value and priorities.  

These include a community benefit fund associated with the EGL2 project, which is a collaboration between SSEN Transmission and National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET), which has had funding agreed with the energy regulator, Ofgem. 

SSEN Transmission used a proportion of the project costs to calculate the local fund values. Guidance from the UK Government is expected to clarify the value of future funding associated with new transmission infrastructure.  

Each local fund will be developed in partnership with the relevant communities. Priorities will be identified that most closely align with the aims of that community or communities. 

The decisions on who should receive funding for each local fund will be made by an independent panel. Each panel will be made up of local people that best represent the interests of the communities involved. Our dedicated Community Investment team will be on hand to support the panel. 

Government guidance is expected on the future of community benefit funds associated with electricity network infrastructure. Further local funds will be developed in accordance with this guidance, once available, and will build upon successes of the preliminary funds. We expect that these future funds will be of a significantly higher value than the preliminary funds.