Shetland HVDC Link 2

By 2025, SSEN Transmission had undertaken a desk-based assessment to identify 23 potential landfall sites in northern Shetland Mainland for the Shetland 2 HVDC Link subsea cable, considering engineering, environmental, consenting and community factors and incorporating feedback from public consultations held in June 2025. From this longlist, four sites, including Toft Camp, were selected to progress to the detailed design stage because of feasible horizontal directional drilling, good road access, limited environmental constraints, and suitable distances to the proposed new HVDC converter station.

A further marine-focused public consultation for the Shetland 2 HVDC Link was scheduled by SSEN Transmission for 12 November 2025 at Portsoy Church Centre, giving Scottish mainland communities the opportunity to comment on subsea cable routing and landfall proposals.

SSEN Transmission scheduled a public information and consultation session at Brae Community Hall on 9 October 2025 to present landfall selection options and associated information for the Shetland HVDC Link 2 and the Northern Substation Hub, inviting local residents and stakeholders to review shortlisted landfall sites and provide feedback.

By September 2025, SSEN Transmission had progressed landfall selection for the Shetland HVDC Link 2 by narrowing an initial longlist of 23 potential landfall sites in northern Shetland Mainland to four shortlisted locations—Grunnavoe (Site 3), Toft Ness (Site 4), Wethersta (Site 19) and Toft Camp (Site 23)—to be taken forward into detailed design. The Toft Camp site was specifically selected for this next stage because horizontal directional drilling is considered feasible with ample compound space, it has short access to the A968 road, avoids overlap with environmental designations, offers a short underground cable route to the planned HVDC converter station, and is more than 1 km from the nearest homes, although its onward marine route lies close to the Toft–Ulsta ferry corridor.

In July 2025, Ofgem published its Clean Power 2030 (CP2030) ‘minded to’ position, confirming the need for proposed on-island transmission infrastructure on Shetland to connect current and future requirements associated with the Shetland Strategy and the planned Shetland HVDC Link 2. This indicative regulatory decision signals support for the required Shetland onshore network that will interface with the second HVDC link.

In June 2025, SSEN Transmission held marine consultation events in Brae (Shetland) and Portsoy on the Scottish mainland to present early proposals for the Shetland 2 HVDC Link, including the subsea cable route and landfall area of interest, and to seek feedback from local communities and stakeholders.

On 22 January 2025, SSEN Transmission signed a Capacity Reservation Agreement with a consortium of Sumitomo Electric Industries and Van Oord for the supply and installation of a second 525 kV HVDC cable link between Shetland and the Scottish mainland, known as the Shetland 2 HVDC Link. The agreement covers delivery of the subsea cables from Sumitomo’s new manufacturing facility under construction in Nigg in northeast Scotland.

In December 2024, Ofgem, the GB energy regulator, approved funding for early-stage development works in Shetland under the Shetland Strategy, which includes the proposed second Shetland HVDC Link. This capital support follows NESO’s March 2024 Beyond 2030 report confirming the requirement for a second Shetland HVDC link, and enables SSEN Transmission to progress initial development activities for Shetland HVDC Link 2 and associated on-island infrastructure.

On 14 May 2024, SSEN Transmission selected the Sumitomo Electric–Van Oord consortium as preferred bidder to manufacture and install the 525kV, 330km Shetland 2 HVDC subsea cable, which will connect three ScotWind offshore wind farms to the GB transmission system and add around 1.8GW of capacity. The parties will now continue contractual negotiations while SSEN Transmission awaits Ofgem’s final regulatory framework for the project, with Sumitomo’s planned cable factory in Nigg, Scotland, serving as an anchor investment for delivering the link.

In March 2024, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) published its ‘Beyond 2030’ report, which identified the Shetland ‘hub’ as an electricity network upgrade and confirmed the requirement for a second Shetland HVDC link (Shetland HVDC Link 2) to connect new ScotWind offshore wind projects and other renewables on Shetland to the mainland grid. This system planning decision provides the formal basis for SSEN Transmission’s Shetland Strategy and the early development of the Shetland 2 HVDC Link.

By November 2025, SSEN Transmission had begun early development work on the Shetland 2 HVDC Link, including obtaining marine survey licences to enable offshore investigations along the prospective cable route, while full regulatory approval for the second HVDC link from Ofgem was still pending.