SSEN Transmission, 75% owned by the electricity infrastructure company SSE plc (LON:SSE), has announced a £1bn,12-year bank facility backed by an £800m financial guarantee from the UK Government’s National Wealth Fund which will support four major grid upgrade projects under way in the north of Scotland.
This new bank facility has been syndicated to a group of SSEN Transmission’s relationship banks, led by Bank of America, and including BBVA, HSBC, JP Morgan, Lloyds, MUFG, NatWest and Santander.
The financing announced today is ringfenced as a Green Loan to support four SSEN Transmission projects which will upgrade grid capacity, improve local resilience and connect power from the places of generation to areas of demand throughout the GB grid. The projects are SSEN Transmission’s Skye Reinforcement, Argyll and Kintyre 275kV Strategy, and the Orkney Connection as well as the jointly developed venture Eastern Green Link 2 (‘EGL2’).
These projects will see Orkney connected to the transmission grid for the first time, as well as significantly strengthening the transmission infrastructure serving communities including Skye, Fort Augustus, Argyll and Kintyre.
EGL2 HVDC subsea project is the largest ever single investment in the UK transmission system and will play a critical role in delivering the UK and Scottish governments’ clean power and energy security targets – supporting thousands of jobs across the country and boosting local and national economies.
The National Wealth Fund’s supported financing offers longer-dated lending, better aligning with the life of grid assets and ensuring the swift progression of these four critical upgrade projects, which have been independently assessed as required by both the independent National Energy System Operator (NESO) and the energy regulator, Ofgem.
Barry O’Regan, SSE’s Chief Financial Officer, said:
“This new Bank Facility supported by the National Wealth Fund financial guarantee provides an excellent source of funding diversification, and with a three-year availability window helping to manage liquidity for SSEN Transmission.
It demonstrates the importance of grid upgrades both in achieving the country’s clean power and energy security goals, and in unlocking economic growth throughout the nations and regions of Britain.”
Notes
About SSEN Transmission
· Headquartered in Perth – with offices in Aberdeen, Inverness and Glasgow – Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc (SHET), trading as SSEN Transmission, is responsible for the electricity transmission network in the north of Scotland, investing in and maintaining the high voltage 132kV, 220kV, 275kV and 400kV electricity transmission network.
· SSEN Transmission’s strategic objective is to enable the transition to a low carbon economy, helping to secure the country’s clean power and energy security ambitions. It does this by building the electricity transmission network infrastructure required to connect and transport renewable electricity in the north of Scotland to the towns, villages and cities where it’s needed, as it delivers a network for net zero emissions.
· SSEN Transmission is owned 75% by SSE plc and 25% by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’).
· Learn more about SSEN Transmission by visiting www.ssen-transmission.co.uk
