SSEN’s TKUP Project – A Design Built on Failure

For over two years, SSEN have been warned that their proposed 400kV overhead line design is unsafe for modern agriculture. Instead of acting, they rely on political connections and the complacency of regulators to push their scheme forward.

SSEN recently stated that 4.7m is the maximum safe height of farm machinery – an absurd claim when machinery exceeding 7m is already in documented use across Scotland.

For their own staff, SSEN apply strict exclusion zones, training, and enforced shutdowns before working near lines. Farmers, by contrast, are expected to pass repeatedly under unsafe conductors using normal machinery – with no such protections.

Both SSEN and their statutory overseers are bound by law and regulation to ensure:

• Safety for all land users and the public – under the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002 (ESQCR).

• Compliance with ENA TS 43-8 – which sets out clearance calculations for vehicles “not of fixed height.”

• Minimum legal ground clearance of 7.3m – which must be exceeded where land use or machinery demands.

By ignoring these standards, SSEN’s design is already unsafe on paper. If constructed, it will mean landowners may be forced to request shutdowns and SSEN staff attendance for every normal field operation, rendering the project unworkable in practice.

This is not just impractical – it is proof of a design that fails its most basic legal and safety obligations.

SSEN have failed. Regulators are ignoring their statutory duties. And unless this is challenged, an unsafe design will be forced through at the expense of those who must live and work beneath it.

No Clarity. No Clearance. No Consent.