Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) is seeking views on a new cost-benefit methodology for seabed cables.

SSEN has more than 100 submarine cables, connecting 59 islands as far from the mainland as the Outer Hebrides (Shetland is not connected to the mainland).

Many are reaching the end of their technical and economic lives and have to be replaced, and under a National Marine Plan adopted by the Scottish Government in 2015 the company has to consider protecting submarine electricity cables end to end, rather than using surface lay.