Subsea cable installation commences to reconnect Lewis and Harris to energy grid
2 August 2021
Work has began in earnest to install a new electricity subsea across the Minch to reconnect Lewis and Harris to the mainland grid.
Initial sections of the new link were placed on the seabed this morning by SSE’s chartered cable-
The first end of the 33,000-
Later this week, the other end is scheduled to come ashore at Beacravik in the Bays of Harris.
Good weather and calm seas this week provide the best chance of laying the new connector before autumn gales set in.
Seabed checks were carried out at the end of last week with the ship lugging large boulders on the sea floor out of the way.
Weather and sea conditions permitting, the 138-
Airbags will float a few hundred metres stretch of cable along the sea surface at landfall on each side of the Minch, guided by divers in the water with winches and excavators heaving in from the beach.
Later this month engineers will tie-
SSE aims to have the new cable energised by the end of the August permitting local wind turbines to produce green electricity again after an 11 month stoppage.
The Stornoway power station will then revert to its back-
Lewis and Harris have been cut off from the national electricity grid since October when a major fault occurred in the existing submarine distribution cable connecting to the Scottish mainland to the only energy link between the locations.
The broken section is about around nine miles out from the Skye coast -
The cable is part of a line that carries power from the National Grid to Stornoway. The entire link comprises an overland cable from Fort Augustus to Skye, the subsea section between Skye and Harris and a further overland section running through Lewis to Stornoway.
The cablelayer ship inspects the Harris coast
David Wake