The sites, situated at Bower Quarry near Halkirk in Caithness and Blackhills near Peterhead, will be the key bases for the onshore cable installation works, aiding construction operations in the route in the coming months.

Office accommodation, welfare facilities and storage areas for project teams and supply chain partners involved in providing the onshore cable package are included among the facilities.

At present, roughly 50 members of staff are based at the Bower Quarry facility, representing organisations such as SSEN Transmission, principal contractor NKT and contractor John Gunn and Sons, which is Caithness-based.

A total of 23 permanent staff members from SSEN Transmission, NKT and Aberdeenshire-based contractor Nicol of Skene are now based at the Blackhills site.

Local workers will remain employed in both sites as the project moves forward.

The formation of both construction compounds marks a milestone for the project, which will create a 166-kilometre, 2 gigawatt High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) subsea cable link between Sinclair’s Bay in Caithness and Rattray Head near Peterhead.

The link will connect into the Banniskirk Hub in Caithness and the Netherton Hub, which is near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire.

The progress arrives as Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) operations proceed at Rattray Head, where a 1.7km drill is being constructed. The technique enables the cable to be installed in pipes underneath the coastline.

Niall Macleod, project director for SSEN Transmission’s Spittal to Peterhead HVDC subsea link, said: “These facilities will act as the operational centres for our teams and supply chain partners, including local businesses John Gunn and Sons and Nicol of Skene, as we progress construction of this critical infrastructure project.

“With both sites now in place, we’re well positioned to move forward with the next stages of delivery.”