SSEN Transmission at a glance
Current figures — last updated 2026-06-25- Legal name
- Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc
- Trades as
- SSEN Transmission
- Parent group
- SSE plc
- Region
- North of Scotland, Highlands and Islands
- Regulator
- Ofgem (RIIO-T3, 2026–2031)
- Runs the grid?
- No — NESO does (since 2024)
What SSEN Transmission owns
SSEN Transmission holds one of the three GB transmission licences. It covers some of the windiest spots in Europe and some of the smallest electricity demand, a hard engineering problem and a huge opportunity for clean power.
High-voltage backbone
132 kV, 275 kV and 400 kV overhead lines, substations and switching stations carrying bulk power, mostly wind and hydro, toward the Central Belt and on to England.
Subsea HVDC links
Long high-voltage direct-current cables under the sea (Caithness-Moray, Western Link and more) move Scottish wind south without needing extra overland pylons.
Island connections
Links to Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides, letting onshore and offshore wind from these islands feed into the GB market at scale for the first time.
Where SSEN Transmission sits in the journey of an electron
UK electricity passes through three layers before it reaches your kettle. SSEN Transmission owns the first of those layers in the north of Scotland.
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1
Transmission: the high-voltage motorway
SSEN Transmission owns the high-voltage system in the north of Scotland. SP Transmission owns the equivalent in the south. National Grid Electricity Transmission owns it in England and Wales. NESO co-ordinates the whole motorway as one GB system in real time.
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2
Distribution: SSEN Distribution (the local roads)
In the north of Scotland, SSEN Distribution takes power off the high-voltage grid, steps it down and carries it through local cables to homes and businesses.
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3
Supply: your bill
A licensed supplier buys electricity, pays transmission and distribution charges, then bills you. The supplier is the only link you can switch.
Who do I actually call? Quick check
For a household problem in the Highlands, SSEN Transmission is almost never the answer. Pick your situation; the answer is also in the table below.
| Situation | SSEN Transmission? | SSEN Distribution (105) | Supplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power cut on your street | No | Yes | No |
| Downed wire / danger | No | Yes + 999 | No |
| Bill, tariff, meter | No | No | Yes |
| New home connection / EV charger | No | Yes (G98 / G99) | No |
| Wind farm / large connection | Yes | No | No |
SSEN Transmission projects: why your bill pays for Highland pylons
SSEN Transmission is a regulated monopoly; Ofgem caps its revenue under RIIO-T3 (2026–2031) and suppliers pass the cost into your bill. Its current build-out, often called "Pathway to 2030", is one of the largest on the GB grid.
Here is the insider point. The north of Scotland generates far more wind than it can use locally, and the grid out of the region has been too small to carry the surplus south. So when it is windy, NESO pays Highland wind farms to switch off. In 2025, 98% of Britain's curtailed wind was in Scotland, part of a ~£1.46 billion national constraint bill.
Every new overhead line, substation and subsea cable SSEN Transmission builds is aimed at that waste. The pylons are unpopular locally, but the alternative, leaving the wind stranded, is what could push constraint costs toward £8 billion a year by 2030. Building the grid is the cheaper path, even though it lifts network charges a little in the near term.
SSEN Transmission: frequently asked questions
SSEN Transmission is the company that owns and maintains the high-voltage transmission network in the north of Scotland, the pylons, subsea cables and substations at 132 kV and above. Its legal name is Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission (SHE Transmission) and it is part of the SSE group. It does not sell electricity to homes and does not fix household power cuts.
No. Call 105 from any phone, free, 24/7. It routes you to SSEN Distribution, the network that owns the local cables to your meter and fixes faults. SSEN Transmission owns the high-voltage backbone that links wind farms to that network; it is not in contact with your home. If a line is down or there is danger, also call 999.
They are all part of the SSE group but do different jobs. SSEN Transmission (SHE Transmission) owns the high-voltage system in the north of Scotland. SSEN Distribution owns the lower-voltage local cables. SSE plc is the parent group. Scottish Hydro was SSE's old retail supply brand, now phased out, its supply customers moved to OVO in 2020.
SSEN Transmission publishes its network map and its major projects (such as new overhead lines, subsea links and substations) on its own corporate site. Its current investment programme, often called "Pathway to 2030", is one of the largest grid build-outs in Britain, designed to carry Highland and offshore wind south. This page explains what those projects are for; the live map and project list sit on the operator's website.
At privatisation, Scotland's electricity system was split between two integrated operators: ScottishPower in the central and southern belt, and Scottish Hydro-Electric in the north. Each kept both transmission and distribution for its own area. Today SP Transmission and SSEN Transmission own those two halves of the Scottish high-voltage grid.