The story of power transmission in the north of Scotland is being told in a new book published by SSE Heritage, the archive and history arm of Perth-based electricity company SSE.
Called ‘The Highland Grid’, it draws on over 100 years of archive documents, newspaper cuttings and interviews with people who worked on the high voltage electricity network as long ago as the 1950s.
It describes how the national grid that was developed across the rest of Britain in the 1920s and 1930s never extended to the area of Scotland north of the central belt. Instead, a different network of transmission lines and substations was built that was dubbed ‘the Highland Grid’ by the old North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board.
The book tells how the first transmission lines in the north, starting with a line from Rannoch and Abernethy that was commissioned in 1930, opened the way for the hydro-electric schemes that allowed power supply to be extended to cottages, crofts and communities right across the Highlands.
It describes the remarkable efforts of some of the engineers and linesmen who built and maintained the transmission network in often inhospitable terrain and atrocious weather conditions. People whose stories are told include ‘tough guy Joe’ who did the heavy carrying for 10-ton pylons himself, and linesman John Ritchie, who dug his way out of snow on 11 occasions during a major storm in the 1950s.
The book doesn’t shy away from the controversies that surround transmission lines in the 2020s, particularly their impact on the landscape. It shows that these debates have been a feature of power supply developments for almost a century. Novelist John Buchan, then an MP, was amongst those who had their say on pylons as long ago as the 1930s.
It also highlights examples of how the grid in the Highlands has led where others have followed. The very first line from Rannoch to Abernethy was said to constitute the biggest in the country, and the new High Voltage Direct Current link connecting Shetland, Caithness and Moray is the first of its kind in Europe.
The book was written for SSE Heritage by A.L. Young, who worked in the electricity industry for almost 20 years. It has a foreword written by Professor Keith Bell of Strathclyde University.
Gregor Alexander, chair of SSEN Transmission, the SSE business which operates the transmission network in the north of Scotland, said:
“SSEN Transmission is currently carrying out one of the biggest investment programmes the north of Scotland has ever seen, and is one of the area’s biggest employers, but when planning for the future it makes sense to look at the past. The story of power transmission in the north has never been told before, but given the scale of our ambitions for the next few years, we thought it was time it was.”
Howard Simpson, who joined the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board in 1954, and from 1964 held various posts in the System Operation section, recalled how ‘there was little or no computing in the early days and the system got in your blood’. Howard added:
“Transmission doesn’t really get the recognition it deserves in the electricity system, so I’m very pleased that this history of the Highland Grid has been written. It has been very important for the north of Scotland over the last 100 years and will be even more so in the future.”
Gillian O’Reilly, Head of Heritage at SSE, said: “This is not a corporate history, but is centered on the work of the extraordinary people who have built and operated the Highland Grid. It’s a story of personal commitment, exceptional skills and technical acumen, and I hope that many people will find it a fascinating addition to the modern history of the north of Scotland.”
The Highland Grid runs to 232 pages, costs £20 and can be purchased at Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre in person or by contacting pitlochry.dam@sse.com. The book is also stocked by Waterstones in selected stores and online.