PLANNING APPLICATION: 15/00631/EIA In the event that a recommendation on this planning application is overturned the Committee is reminded of the advice contained on the front page of the agenda for Reports on Applications THE PROPOSAL Offshore cabling making landfall near Portgordon 30m below ground level and surfacing 150m inland on agricultural ground. At this area, a temporary landfall works compound 120m x 85m will be located to facilitate construction of two permanent transition bay chambers where the subsea cables will transfer to land based cables. Once complete these chambers will be accessible via manholes, with no other structures remaining above ground at Tannachy Sands, Portgordon. This works compound will be in situ for approximately 12-18 months. The onshore cable corridor will consist of two trenches and two 220kV cables travelling for a distance 18.5km underground, which will be backfilled and returned to predominantly agricultural use. The HVAC (High Voltage Alternating Current) cable corridor will be 13m wide in terms of servitude of access etc but on the current application site plan is shown wider (approximately 50m) to reflect the necessary construction corridor for machinery, earth moving etc. The cable corridor will comprise of the two cables laid 4.5m apart and 1.3m - 2m deep. Approximately every 900m an underground jointing bay (10 m length x 3.5 m width x 2.1 m depth for each cable) will be required to connect sections of cabling. These will then be backfilled and accessed by manholes once complete. These jointing bays will occur 20 times for each cable along the 18.5km route. Also present in each trench will be; o a fibre optic communication cable and duct; o an earth conductor cable duct (subject to detailed earthing system design); and o a cable monitoring system. At six points on the cable corridor at the crossing of watercourses, roads, railway lines, a horizontal directional drill (HDD) will be used instead of the open trench laying to tunnel under each obstruction. This will involve a larger working area while the directional drilling rig is set up for the operation. These locations are at Burn of Tynet, A98, B9016, A96(T), Railway line/A95(T) and a further location beneath the Keith to Dufftown railway line and adjacent River Isla. Each HDD site will operate over a 1-4 week period dependent upon the complexity of the operation. The cable corridor will also cross a number of smaller ditches, gas pipelines, other utilities, private tracks, and will require to cross Core Paths, the Speyside Way, Isla Way and a national cycle route. It is anticipated that there will 26 points of temporary construction access points to the cable route corridor along its length during construction. A permanent access will be formed from the U43H Blackhillock Road into the substation site. Construction and operation of a new 13 hectare High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) substation site at Blackhillock. The substation will consist of a control building 12m x 36m x 6m high and larger areas of external plant, apparatus and above ground cabling. Within the site, a 2.4m high security palisade fence will enclose and secure the substation compound which would be 220m x 160m. The substation will link via two 400kV lines into the adjoining Blackhillock SSE substation and the national grid. The substation site will have a septic tank and soakaway for the staff using the control building. Within the secure compound CCTV security cameras and directional lighting is proposed, which will be operated manually when the site is manned. Once operational the substation will normally be unmanned. A car park will also be provided within the site for visiting personnel. Temporary construction compounds at Blackhillock and Portgordon will be present for the duration of most of the construction, with the temporary seven satellite compounds on the cable route being present for shorter periods. The cable laying operation will move gradually along the cable corridor, laying several hundred metres per week on average dependent upon conditions and obstacles. THE SITE This is a very large site encompassing land from the coast at Portgordon south east to Blackhillock south of Keith. The cable corridor at various points will interact with the Coastal Protection Zone (CPZ), the coastal Spey Bay Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Keith Countryside Around Towns designation (CAT). The cable corridor will pass south west of Portgordon Malting then generally follow the route of the A990 Portgordon Road, south across the A98 and then follow the B9016 towards Aultmore. The cable route will travel south from Aultmore and pass round the west and south sides of Keith, beneath the A96(T), A95(T), railway lines and River Isla. The cable corridor will then approach the substation compound from a north westerly direction passing by Braehead. The cable corridor and substation occupy what is currently agricultural or scrub land, with no significant stands of trees affected by the cable corridor. Beyond the environmental and landscape designation above, the site area covers, in differing locations, several archaeological designations, high pressure and low pressure gas mains, other utilities, railway lines, public roads, prime agricultural land and known flood areas. HISTORY History upon the site 12/01774/EIA - Erection of electricity substation/convertor station with access road ancillary works and underground cable link to Portgordon to service Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) at Blackhillock Croft Keith Moray AB55 5NY. Planning Permission in Principle (PPP) was granted approval by committee in February 2013. The substation site and cable route are largely unchanged from the PPP apart from where the cable route now travels west and south of the Portgordon Malting, where it had previously sat to the east of the factory closer to the A990 Portgordon Road. Relevant offshore planning history 12/00753/S36 - An Electricity Act Section 36 application for the Beatrice offshore windfarm in the Moray Firth and related Offshore Transmission Works (OfTW) was lodged with Marine Scotland in April 2012 and consent granted on 19th March 2014, with marine licences being granted for the windfarm and OfTW in August 2014. The windfarm comprises of up to 110 turbines (up to 7mW each) in the outer Moray Firth, capable of generating up to 664 MW of renewable energy. The Moray Council were consulted on the proposal by Marine Scotland and did not object to this offshore windfarm which lies approximately 50km north of the Moray coast. Construction is due to commence in 2017. Consent was granted for a 25 year period. Separate to the current proposal, the separate installation of subsea and underground High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables to enable efficient transmission of electricity between the new convertor stations at Spittal in Caithness and Blackhillock, Keith (the Caithness to Moray cable route) is being constructed from 2015. This undergrounded cable also makes landfall close to Portgordon and follows a similar route to Blackhillock past Aultmore and south of Keith. This cable corridor, which is known as the Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Ltd. (SHE-T) line, is being developed under Permitted Development Rights relevant to Electricity Utility providers. Nearby planning history 10/02092/EIA - Formation of windfarm comprising of 6 wind turbines (125m in height total capacity up to 21mw) and associated infrastructure including access tracks, control building housing, switchgear equipment and buried cables at Edintore, Keith. Located approximately 1km south of the proposed substation site, this application was approved at Appeal by the DPEA in 2012 and construction has now started. 12/00834/APP - Electricity substation expansion at Blackhillock Sub Station, Keith, Moray is a large project and part of the national grid upgrade by SSE Ltd as part of a major reinforcement of the transmission network serving the north of Scotland to enable proposed renewable projects to connect to the National Electricity Transmission System (NETS). This site, which extends to 27 hectares, is now under construction and is located immediately to the east of the proposed BOWL substation. This was approved by committee in October 2012. 12/01163/APP - Provision of site office welfare facilities parking for a period of 4 years during construction and road widening of U43(H) at Blackhillock Sub Station, Keith, Moray. This compound lies south east of the existing Blackhillock substation and has been constructed. This compound was approved by Committee in January 2013. 15/00271/APP - Site construction compound and offices associated with the building of HVDC Convertor Station at Blackhillock Substation and SHE-T cable works leading north toward Portgordon. Compound located at Little Gibston, Keith, Moray. Granted for a temporary 6 year period at committee in May 2015, this compound will be similar to and adjacent to the compound currently operational on adjacent land to the north. This compound is now under construction. POLICY - SEE APPENDIX ADVERTISEMENTS Advertised under EIA Regulations and for neighbour notification purposes. CONSULTATIONS Transportation - no objection subject to conditions and informatives. SEPA - no objection subject to conditions and informatives. Environmental Health – no objection subject to conditions regarding noise and limiting the hours of construction activity. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds - the proposed ornithological mitigation proposed in the Environmental Statement should be provided (Officer note - the condition relating to the provision of a CEMP based on the outline CEMP inclusive of a Schedule of Mitigation covers this issue). Joint Radio Company - no objection. Transport Scotland - no objection subject to various conditions. Network Rail - no objection subject to comments. Historic Environment Scotland (formerly Historic Scotland) - no objections. Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service - no objection subject to a condition. SNH - no objection subject to ecological mitigation being carried forward into CEMP. Building Standards - A Building Warrant may be required.