ENERGY giant SSE has been told by the regulator it should be allowed to lay a subsea cable across the Moray Firth for £1.1 billion - £170 million less than the firm had calculated.
Ofgem approved plans for a 100-mile link, between Caithness and Moray, which could carry 1.2 gigawatts of green energy to the grid from planned wind, wave and tidal projects in the north of Scotland in July. There are plans for over 300 offshore turbines alone in the Firth.
SSE's Scottish Hydro Electricity Transmission had applied to Ofgem for permission to charge its customers £1,236.2m to finance the project. But Ofgem says the cost is £1,062.3m. A statement from Ofgem said the proposals were now under consultation for four weeks and a final decision on funding would be made in December.
It added "The new link will connect 1.2GW of new renewable electricity generation following completion in 2018. This additional capacity will increase the resilience of Britain's energy infrastructure. It will connect the electricity grid on either side of the Moray Firth."
Perth-based SSE said in a statement it believed that it had produced "a well defined and well-scoped project that offers value for money for customers while allowing the realisation of the vast potential of renewable electricity generation in the north of Scotland for the benefit of the whole country."
The company said it was disappointed with the level of the allowances proposed by Ofgem, but the consultation process provided the right opportunity for these to be resolved in a way that was fair to customers and investors alike.
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