A SCOTTISH landowner and investor has warned his renewable energy business faces going under after being ordered to switch off by an energy distributor carrying out upgrade to the electricity network.

Donald Houston, who has been running his Beinn Bhuidhe Energy small hydro electric scheme on the Ardnmaurchan Estate in the most westerly extremity of the Scottish Highlands, since the 1950s says that Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks are spurning his green energy in favour of the "insane" use of diesel generators.

Mr Houston, is one of the 500 small hydro power operators that produce almost one-fifth of renewable electricity output in Scotland having diversified hill sheep and cattle farming.

The firm generates renewable energy from two hydroelectric schemes and a wind turbine, supplying power to the area.

But SSEN is to disconnect the power supply to the 560 households in the whole of the Ardnamurchan peninsula for four weeks this Autumn and again in 2023 and 2024, and will use the generators to supply the power.

That is to enable Forestry & Land Scotland to undertake felling operations in an area where power lines pass through.

And Mr Houston has been told he cannot supply any power from its wind turbine or hydro schemes for the entire period.

SSEN says it understands his concerns and is looking to reach a compromise agreement.

That is despite the fact that the forestry work will only be taking place on weekdays, between the hours of 9am and 5pm.

The entrepreneur says he is being "crippled" by SSEN which he says is spurning his green energy supplies during planned outage periods.

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Mr Houston, a director of Beinn Bhuidhe Energy says SSEN has refused the offer of an entirely renewable energy supply which could be made available.

He said:"There is no reason why we shouldn't be able to continue to put power into the Grid.

"They are doing tree felling. But they are only cutting trees during day, so there is no reason at the very least that we could still connect during night-time and weekends.

"It appears it is far too difficult and they cannot be bothered.

"Any investment in renewable tech has wafer thin margins. The banks aren't giving us a pay holiday.

"We will potentially become insolvent. That is the commercial side of it.

"And then they are putting generators in when they could be supplied by renewables. It is bonkers. And you have the commercial implications for us."

He said that diesel generators produce twice as many greenhouse gas emissions as other fossil fuels and emit significant quantities of harmful pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulates. They are also one of the most expensive ways to generate power.

SSEN has in the past affirmed its commitment to ‘the use of renewables and energy storage to keep the power flowing for local communities’ during periods of disconnection and to avoid unnecessary carbon emissions.

He has now asked for the interevention of the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport and local MP Ian Blackford saying: "Not only is this environmental madness but this significant loss of income on our extremely marginal investments in renewable technologies will place our companies’ finances in jeopardy with the possibility that we will not be able to meet our financial obligations and we will therefore become insolvent."

Ardnamurchan Peninsula is the most westerly point of the British mainland, bounded by sea on three sides and is said to be home to Scotland's 'Big Five' of red deer, otters, golden eagles, red squirrels and seals.

Mr Houston added: “The use of diesel generators is absolutely insane.

"It is absurd to pollute the air for local people, to generate such high emissions and to refuse to work with local energy companies who have already created renewable energy schemes. The Scottish government should intervene to ensure that our energy supply is not polluting the environment. The Scottish government talks about net zero but it repeatedly fails to deliver.”

He added: “To achieve net zero on the farm and to provide an income stream outwith hill farming we have invested in excess of £5million in renewable energy and associated schemes. Our vision is to be totally sustainable by generating our own power and making the most of all opportunities to recycle materials and minimise waste.

“We are net exporters of power and we rely on the income generated from our renewable energy schemes to support our farming business. We have bent over backwards to reach an agreement with SSEN on this issue but they refuse to meet us halfway.”

SSEN said that after discussions it has agreed to allow him to use a maximum of self-generated 50kW on a trial basis, on a machine of his choice, while the mobile generators are in use.

An SSEN Distribution spokesman said: “We’re committed to delivering a secure and reliable supply of electricity to the homes and businesses across our network, with everyone’s safety being at the forefront of all we do.

“When work is being carried out close to our network, be that by our own teams or following an access request by a third party, it is often necessary to turn off the power to keep everyone safe – when this is the case, we will look to minimise disruption, and the most common way of doing this is by connecting temporary mobile generation. In this particular instance we have been in regular dialogue with Mr Houston since the outage was at its planning stage in an attempt to reach a solution which is agreeable for everyone concerned.”