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 says the Shetland HVDC Link 2 Landfall and Northern Hub information-event feedback period is open until 21 August 2026.
- SSEN describes the Shetland HVDC Link 2 project as connecting Shetland to the Scotland mainland, with project location listed as Aberdeenshire, Moray and Shetland Islands.
- The Energy Consents Unit page for ECU00005165 lists the Beauly–Blackhillock–New Deer–Peterhead 400kV OHL as an Overhead Power Line EIA case and shows the status as referred to DPEA.
- DPEA case TRL-270-2 is listed as a Section 37 transmission-line inquiry for the Beauly to Peterhead OHL.
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 feedback: SSEN says the Shetland HVDC Link 2 Landfall and Northern Hub feedback period is open until 21 August 2026.
OHL process: the Beauly–Peterhead OHL is now in the DPEA inquiry process. Save the Deveron Valley has asked DPEA whether any late written note, observer route or correspondence-list route remains open for affected Deveron Valley residents and community groups.
Anyone writing now should clearly quote TRL-270-2 / ECU00005165 and ask where best to send their note.
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 consider getting in touch or registering interest in updates.
Our email update system is being set up. You can leave your email here to register interest. We will not add you to a regular mailing list until the proper email system is ready.
To be removed before then, email hello@savethedeveron.org with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.
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.