Transmission line route

Scottish & Southern Energy PLC
20 January 2004

                      PREFERRED ROUTE FOR NEW £200 MILLION

                   400,000 VOLT TRANSMISSION LINE IDENTIFIED


Scottish and Southern Energy plc (SSE) has identified its preferred route for
the new 400,000 Volt electricity transmission line between the Highlands and the
Central Belt of Scotland which has to be constructed if national targets for the
generation of electricity from renewable sources are to be achieved. SSE expects
that construction of the line and the associated substations will require
investment of around £200m.

The identification of the route follows a 15-month study, during which SSE met
with the relevant local authorities, statutory and non-statutory bodies and
other interested parties to help identify the best route for the new line.

SSE is now embarking on a further round of consultation on the preferred route,
and on additional environmental studies, with a view to submitting to the
Scottish Executive in the third quarter of this year an application for consent
to build the new line.

It aims to begin construction of the new line in the first half of next year,
subject to timely progress of the planning application and final agreement on
the regulatory framework for the investment. On this basis, the line could be
operational in late 2007.

The new 220km line will run between Beauly and Denny and will replace an
existing 132,000 Volt line, almost all of which will be dismantled and removed
once the new line is operational. While the preferred route for the new line has
been selected on the basis of environmental and technical criteria, 75% of it
will be built on a similar route to the existing line.

Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE, said: 'The existing line was originally
built to serve a very rural area with very low demand for electricity. It was
not designed to cope with the large number of requests for connections to the
electricity network which we are currently receiving from renewable energy
developers. Publication of the preferred route for a new line is, therefore, an
important milestone in our plans to upgrade the electricity infrastructure and
thereby facilitate the growth of renewables in Scotland.

'Only the delivery of the necessary infrastructure will enable Scotland's
renewable energy ambitions to become a reality. It is, therefore, vital that the
wide support that exists for developing renewables in Scotland translates into a
commitment to enabling this nationally-important infrastructure project to
become a reality as soon as possible.

'We will continue to work very closely with local authorities, statutory and
non-statutory bodies, the Scottish Executive and others to make significant
progress over the next few months and beyond.'

Contacts:

Alan Young Director of Corporate Communications 0870 900 0410

Julian Reeves Communications Manager 0870 900 0410


                      This information is provided by RNS
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