We have published a report on the first round of consultation on the Cross Border Connection planned in the Scottish Borders
The Pre-Application Consultation (PAC) report details the significant level of engagement with the community - one of the most extensive we have undertaken - and captures key themes and issues shared across two periods of consultation in Autumn 2024 and Spring 2025.
During these consultation periods around 700 people attended local community drop-in sessions and hundreds more came along to Community Council meetings right across the Scottish Borders, to hear details of the preferred route.
In response to the extensive engagement, almost 2,000 submissions were received from the local community and beyond, feeding in views and information to help shape proposals for the route.
Concerns centred around the potential impact on properties, the local tourist economy, local heritage and the environment. In response, and based on community and stakeholder feedback, we significantly revised the preferred route corridor taking it further away from key heritage and tourist sites and other sensitive areas.
The information shared will also help develop the detailed route alignment, to be developed in the next phase of project design. This work will be landscape and environment led to ensure sensitive siting of infrastructure.
Marlene Marimbe, Environmental Planner at SP Energy Networks, said: "We are grateful to everyone who engaged with us during our first round of consultation on the Cross Border Connection. Sharing information on a project at such an early point in its development means we can take feedback onboard and make real and substantive changes to the plan.
"The Cross Border Connection is part of the biggest rewiring of the electricity grid since it was first built. Delivering this project will strengthen energy security and help increase the resilience of the electricity network all across the country as we move towards an all-electric future.
"The next step for us is to carry out extensive and detailed investigation, including a full Environmental Impact Assessment. This will enable us to evolve the proposals and move from a preferred route to a specific alignment with exact information on tower positions, access routes and how we will go about constructing the scheme, if consented.
"We are on-track to share the detailed proposals with the community at a further round of community consultation in late 2026."
With electricity demand set to double in Britain by 2050, projects like the Cross Border Connection will expand capacity on the grid, supporting new homes, businesses, clean heat and transport and unlocking economic growth.
It would see a new power line running north-south from a proposed substation north of Galashiels, to a point at the Scotland-England border, south of Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders to meet increased demand from the electrification of heat and transport and strengthen security of supply.
The Cross Border Connection is part of our programme of investment in the South of Scotland transmission network, investing £2bn in the region every year between 2026 to 2031.
The Cross Border Connection project is a joint development between SP Energy Networks and National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET). The next stage of the project will see NGET hold public engagement and consultation activities this autumn. This is part of developing a planning application under the Development Consent Order process to seek powers to deliver the section of the project required in England.
Read the PAC report and other consultation materials here: Cross Border Connection project documents