Smeaton Substation Extension

Scotland is producing more clean, green energy than ever before, and we need to strengthen the transmission network so we can get it to the homes, schools and businesses that need it.

To help make this happen we need to build an extension to the existing Smeaton Substation near Whitecraig and Cousland in both Midlothian Council and East Lothian Council boundary areas.

The extension to the substation will help to increase network capacity and accommodate new connections to the network, helping to guarantee secure electricity supplies in future.

Background: the energy challenge

The UK is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, with a target of 40GW of electricity to come from offshore wind by 2030 - enough to power every home in the UK.

Scotland has taken a further step, setting a target date for Net Zero emissions by 2045 – meaning that Scotland’s contribution to climate change will end, definitively, in one generation.

At the same time, the UK Government forecasts that the use of green electricity will double by 2050, with the amount generated from UK offshore wind predicted to increase to 100GW from a projected 40GW in 2030.

We are in the middle of a transformation, with the electricity we use moving away from centralised generation towards multiple smaller-scale renewable sources, both on and offshore, which are geographically distributed.

This huge change means we need to upgrade the UK’s electricity transmission infrastructure, to accommodate the increasing amount of power flowing through the network from where it is produced to the homes, businesses, hospitals and public services that need it.