1. Strategic dependency
We are asking whether the OHL or Shetland 2 system creates the case for the Hub, strengthens the case for the Hub, relies on the Hub, or interacts with the Hub’s timing, routeing or site selection.
Our position
We are not assuming dependency as a proven fact. We are saying it must be properly clarified.
If the proposed Strathbogie Hub depends on, connects to, is justified by, or is materially affected by the Beauly–Peterhead OHL or wider Shetland 2 system, then the Hub cannot be treated only as a standalone local siting issue.
No preferred Strathbogie Hub site should be selected until the status and implications of its dependent infrastructure are clear.
Why we are watching this
This page exists because communities need answers to questions such as:
- Is the Strathbogie Hub dependent on the Beauly–Peterhead OHL or wider Shetland 2 transmission system?
- Would the Hub still proceed in the same form if related infrastructure were refused, delayed or changed?
- Are cumulative effects being assessed as one lived reality?
- Has the Deveron Valley had adequate and locally accessible consultation?
- Are communities being given the same joined-up picture that developers and asset owners may already have?
Key issues under review
2. Consultation gaps
A major concern is whether affected communities are visible enough in assessment documents to count as affected, but not visible enough in practice to receive clear local consultation access.
3. Deveron Valley impacts
We are reviewing material relating to landscape and visual effects, B9022 road users, River Deveron catchment issues, construction traffic and cumulative local burden.
4. Community transparency
If developer forums or similar coordination routes exist for project and asset interests, communities should not be left trying to reconstruct the same picture from scattered fragments.
5. Prematurity
If major connected infrastructure remains under scrutiny, then linked local site-selection decisions should not harden prematurely.
Current evidence position
Verified fact
- SSEN describes Shetland HVDC Link 2 as a proposed link between Shetland and mainland Scotland and lists the project at Project Assessment.
- Boyne Bay and Boyndie Bay remain landfall options after Sandend was discounted.
- The preferred Aberdeenshire landfall, mainland underground-cable route and preferred Strathbogie Hub site remain in development.
- SSEN says the onshore underground route will be up to approximately 30 km, depending on final endpoints and route.
- SSEN has a current written-feedback window; the closing date and feedback route are maintained on the Updates page.
- The Energy Consents Unit page for ECU00005165 lists the Beauly–Blackhillock–New Deer–Peterhead 400kV OHL as referred to DPEA.
- DPEA case TRL-270-2 is an active Section 37 transmission-line inquiry.
Reported local concern
- Local residents and campaigners are concerned that communities are having to piece together the full picture from multiple separate processes.
- There is concern that consultation access and strategic transparency may not match the scale of what is proposed.
Question for authorities
- What is the recorded relationship, dependency or interaction between the OHL, Shetland HVDC Link 2 and Strathbogie Hub?
- What would happen to the Hub’s need, timing, location or site-selection process if related infrastructure were refused, delayed, rerouted, undergrounded, modified or significantly conditioned?
Still-open feedback and procedural routes
Shetland 2: SSEN is holding events in Whitehills and Banff and has opened written feedback. Use the Updates page for the current dates, venues and direct route.
OHL process: the Beauly–Peterhead OHL remains in the DPEA inquiry process. The public case register now includes detailed material and requests concerning Raeshaw/workers accommodation and agricultural operations.
Anyone corresponding about the OHL should quote TRL-270-2 / ECU00005165, follow the current procedural notice and avoid treating a request or question from DPEA as a finding against any party.
What we are doing
- checking what participation routes remain open;
- preparing a written pack on the strategic-dependency issue;
- pulling together source-based evidence on consultation gaps and local effects;
- preparing Environmental Information Requests where needed;
- building public tools so residents can understand the wider picture.
Help us build the record
If you have official documents, local notices, consultation materials, maps, correspondence, photographs or firsthand local knowledge, please email the campaign.
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Support the petition
If you agree that the Deveron Valley deserves fair process, cumulative assessment, transparent site selection and meaningful participation, please support and share our petition.
Useful official links
The whole picture should not have to be guessed from fragments.
If the energy transition is to keep public trust, communities must be given a fair, joined-up and intelligible account of what is being proposed, why it is being proposed, and how connected projects relate to one another.
Public trust is infrastructure.