Highland Council Leader opens SSEN Transmission’s new net-zero offshore hub in Inverness

• New office wing will have capacity for 100 team members to drive forward Pathway to 2030 offshore infrastructure projects

SSEN Transmission has today welcomed Highland Council Leader Raymond Bremner to officially open their new offshore hub in Inverness as the company continues on an exciting path of growth. 

Built exclusively for the teams tasked with delivering its ambitious Pathway to 2030 programme of offshore grid reinforcements, the new office space will have capacity for up to 100 people. 

The collaborative space will help to bring the supply chain to the Highlands, building a bridge between these global businesses and the capital of the north.   All companies involved with working on the projects will be able to access the new space, which contains desk space, meeting rooms and collaboration areas – designed to encourage staff to get together in person to collaborate, innovate and communicate – as they work on the development of major electricity transmission infrastructure across the country. 

In a nod to the Highlands, the meeting rooms are all named after bridges found in the region, including Dornoch, Cromarty, Kylesku, and Ballachulish.

The new office space has been refurbished from an area previously unused in SSEN’s Inverness building, and comes as SSEN Transmission continues to develop its Pathway to 2030 programme, a £20 billion package of electricity grid upgrades across the north of Scotland consisting of new overhead lines, substations, convertor stations, and subsea cables.

The new offshore hub will house teams working predominantly on the offshore high voltage direct current (HVDC) links – including major subsea electricity projects such as the Western Isles HVDC Link and Spittal to Peterhead HVDC Link, which are currently under development, as well as the Orkney Link project which involves installing a new high voltage alternating current (HVAC) subsea cable between Orkney and Caithness.

SSEN Transmission, the transmission business unit of the SSE Group, has a longstanding presence in Inverness and the new office expansion underlines the company’s commitment to the city and north of Scotland as a whole.  

Today the new offshore hub was officially opened by Highland Council leader Cllr Raymond Bremner who was welcomed by SSEN Transmission Director for Offshore Development and Delivery Sandy MacTaggart for a tour of the new space. To commemorate the new opening, Cllr Bremner revealed a new plaque which will sit proudly in the main entrance of the new office space.

To celebrate the opening of the new hub representatives were welcomed from across the 11 businesses and supply chain partners who will be key in supporting SSEN Transmission’s delivery of its ambitious offshore Pathway to 2030 programme.   This includes Balfour Beatty, BAM, Hitachi Energy, J Murphy, Linxon, Morgan Sindall, Mott MacDonald, NKT, RJ McLeod, Robertson and Sumitomo Electric Van Oord Consortium.

SSEN Transmission is on a rapid period of growth, having recently celebrated their 2000th team member joining the business and growing their employee headcount by fivefold in just five years.   The firm is also making great strides in recruiting 500 new net-zero jobs by the end of March 2025, with the new roles spread throughout the country. 

Elsewhere in Inverness, SSEN Transmission is also building a new £17M state of the art operations warehouse at Inverness Airport Business Park, which is being constructed by Beauly-based firm Global Infrastructure.  The warehouse is set to be completed in spring 2025.

Highland Council Leader Councillor Raymond Bremner said:
“Today marks a significant milestone for the Highlands as we embark on a transformative journey towards a low-carbon future. SSEN Transmission’s investment in the ASTI Offshore Pathway to 2030 will not only drive energy security but also bring lasting economic benefits to our communities.

“Through strong public-private partnerships, we’re creating opportunities for local jobs, innovation, and a thriving green economy that will empower our region for generations to come.”

SSEN Transmission’s Director of Offshore Development and Delivery Sandy MacTaggart said:
“We have a major task ahead of us to deliver these projects by 2030, and we can only do this through effective collaboration with all parties involved, so we’re thrilled to make Inverness our offshore hub and officially open our new Pathway to 2030 space today. 

“The new office will help to bring our supply chain partners, many of whom are global players in the energy industry, to the capital of the Highlands, building a bridge to effective delivery of these key subsea projects which will play a major part in the race to net zero. 

“With a longstanding history in Inverness, today’s opening of our offshore Pathway to 2030 hub marks an exciting next step in our continued growth here at SSEN Transmission, and we look forward to advancing these critical offshore infrastructure projects which will play a huge part in the fight against climate change and delivering home-grown energy security.”