Balfour Beatty has secured a number of contracts worth £35 million from Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission (SHE Transmission).

The deals involve developing the Bhlaraidh and Beinneun Wind Farm Connections Project near Fort Augustus in Scotland.

Main construction works are due to begin in April and include building the electrical transmission network connections to the two new wind farms.

Balfour Beatty will build a new substation, refurbish or alter two existing substations, and connect the wind farms to a fourth substation built by a developer.

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In addition, the firm will develop a new 7.5km 132kV underground cable system and refurbish 21km of 132kV overhead line.

The project is due to be completed in spring 2017.

Once completed, the two wind farms could power the equivalent of over 90,000 homes.

Keith Inglis, Manager of Major Customer Connection Projects at SHE Transmission, said: "By awarding these contracts to Balfour Beatty we are enabling the next step forward for the connection of renewable energy. These works are being delivered to tight timescales and it is both challenging and exciting that SHE Transmission is introducing a new and innovative overhead line conductor to its network to help enable these connections."

Stephen Donnelly, Project Manager for Balfour Beatty, added: "With a greater demand to connect renewable energy to the Grid, Balfour Beatty is ideally placed to build both the generation connections into the network and the transmission infrastructure."

The two wind farms will contribute towards Scotland's 2020 target for 100% of the country's electricity and 11% of its heat demand to be generated by renewable sources.

(LM)