Grid upgrade for Applecross after film highlights fuel poverty

The Scottish Government has approved a long-awaited electricity grid upgrade for the people of Applecross – one week after a film highlighting the plight of the Highland community was launched online.

Community and commercial hydro owners insist SSE (the company that decides on grid improvements for the UK Government) promised that an adequate grid would be in place by 2019. But that didn’t happen, leaving community and commercial hydro schemes unable to expand or export most of their energy, and businesses unable to site on the peninsula. 

Approval for SSEN's Skye Reinforcement Project will replace and upgrade the existing, single circuit overhead line between Fort Augustus and Skye which is reaching the end of its operational life, according to the energy firm. Applecross is powered by a grid extension from Skye.

Journalist Lesley Riddoch and filmmaker Katy Kilgour released Applecross - Energy Rich, Power Poor, when they visited the north west peninsula in Wester Ross in April to highlight the energy struggles facing the community there. 

Applecross is famous for its spectacular views as it overlooks  Skye  and is the highest mountain pass in Britain, separating it from the rest of the Highlands, and is home to 250 residents.

Despite being surrounded by energy-rich sources, seven in 10 of its residents live in fuel poverty, Applecross lacks amenities like public electric charging points, and even the only inn doesn’t have capabilities to run electric showers, due to an inadequate grid connection. 

The  community hydro project, Apple Juice, has been unable to export half the energy it generates and unable to expand – losing out on vital income for community projects since it started operating in 2016.  

“It's crazy. Applecross has the highest mountain pass in Britain, so it's obviously got huge drops for hydro-energy and wind, like most of the northern Scotland,” Riddoch explained.  

“Anywhere else in the Nordic countries I've made films about, that amount of natural resource, would leave a community laughing, because they would have a local, truly local council, would own the energy resource and would be supplying it to their own people for pretty much next to nothing.   

“Whereas Applecross folk are having to wait for SSE to decide if they're important enough for the grid improvement that was promised to be in place and operating in 2019.”  

Riddoch explains in the film that the Apple Juice hydroelectric project, which has been running for around a decade, should have “transformed the lives” of the local community, but simply hasn’t due to the grid.  

It’s not just the local community that has faced problems with the grid, with a nearby commercial hydro project having to wait five years before it saw the upgrades needed to export electricity into the grid properly, with around 60% of its output wasted, Riddoch explained.  

New businesses are also unable to start up properly due to the lack of access to three phase energy, which they would require but is unavailable to them –  the Applecross brewery is used as an example as it is based 10 miles south east of the village.  

SSEN added that the line needs to be strengthened to maintain electricity to homes and businesses in Skye and the Western Isles, as well as renewable energy developments which are set to rely on the new line to carry electricity into the national grid. 

Megan MacInnes, the development manager with the Applecross Community Company who stars in Riddoch’s film, said delays to the grid upgrade have resulted in a decade of lost income, and believes the film has helped raise awareness on the issue.   

“We are relieved to hear that planning permission has been granted for this upgrade to the national grid,” she said.  “It is probably just a coincidence, but maybe the film we recently made with Lesley Riddoch ‘Applecross – Energy Rich Power Poor’ – has raised awareness of the challenges we face. The delays so far with this grid upgrade have meant a decade of lost income which could have been reinvested locally.  

“We just hope this means the export cap will soon be lifted so community energy projects, like ours, can reach their full potential.” 

A spokesperson for SSEN Transmission and SSEN Distribution confirmed that Applecross will benefit from the “Skye reinforcement” project.
They said: “Additional capacity for Applecross will come onstream on completion of SSEN Transmission’s proposed Fort Augustus to Skye reinforcement project."

Ariane Burgess, the SNP MSP for Highlands and Islands, said "it’s a relief that the network upgrade has been approved but warned it is still years away from construction and completion."

She said: “The community should be supported to make more use of the clean, green energy it generates locally via battery storage and EV chargers, for example.  “Across Scotland, we must update our grid to unlock the full potential of our community-owned renewables - both to provide energy security in an uncertain world and boost the resilience of rural communities.”

Riddoch concludes in her film that Scotland is surrounded by many great examples from other countries on how it can thrive with renewable energy infrastructure and highlights the admirable self-reliance of the Applecross community.  

“The community company is amazing,” Riddoch said.  “We’ve seen all the things that are taken for granted everywhere else, provided in Applecross by a little development trust. If income comes to it, it stays here.   “It creates infrastructure, it makes up for all that the state, council and everybody else is not providing here.

The 30-minute film was released last Wednesday and has already had 15 thousand views online.