SSEN Transmission: Hitting TV screens near you!

A blog by Rob McDonald

Last month was a big month at SSEN Transmission as our first ever TV advert hit screens across the country - a huge step forwards in telling the story of our business.

After months of working with STV behind the scenes, we officially launched our new partnership at the end of May, and it has been so exciting to see it finally come to life. Our brand new SSEN Transmission advert is now appearing on the STV channel and STV Player and is set to run until the end of November.

The partnership will enable new audiences to learn more about who we are and what we do, and the huge job ahead of us to grow the electricity transmission network in the north of Scotland. 

In doing so, we hope that this will go further to explain to people precisely why we’re carrying out a programme of upgrades worth over £20 billion to the grid, which will not only connect new renewable energy but also take a considerable step forwards in helping to fight climate change. 

The current electricity network that we look after in the north of Scotland is not designed for what we’re asking of it today – we need to drastically scale up the size of the network to accommodate the huge amount of new renewable generation that Scotland is expected to deliver in the decades to come. Scotland has so much potential to be a renewable powerhouse, and these changes to the grid are needed to unlock that huge potential and link it to the electricity transmission network.

Our people are at the heart of this story - so to tell it we turned to Joyce, an engineer for over 27 years, and Sam, one of our new graduate engineers who joined our team last year.  They played a starring role in the advert, explaining the importance of our projects and the legacy and benefits they will bring to the north of Scotland and the UK more broadly.  Filming took place at our Kintore Substation development, which is currently undergoing a major upgrade to 400kv capacity - providing the perfect backdrop to show exactly how we’re enhancing the network to make it fit for the future. 

Seeing the advert on screen is an incredible moment and reminds me how far this business has come.  We’ve grown from a few hundred people in 2019 to quadrupling in size just five years later – and to top it off we’re now taking part in a national campaign across TV screens in the country. 

We’re also on billboards across Scotland, and you may have spotted our campaign in train stations and bus shelters right across the country.  It’s so important that we share more about who we are and help audiences to connect with us.

So take a look at our brand new advert on STV player, which showcases the work we are doing to grow the high voltage electricity network here in the north of Scotland. 

We are proud to tell people about the work we’re doing to build a network for net zero which will secure power for generations.