East Lothian company creates 70 new jobs after winning £100m contract to build electricity pylons for north of Scotland
Seventy new jobs are being created at an East Lothian fabrication firm after it won a contract to build 500 electricity pylons.
Had-Fab, based at Tranent, secured the work, worth more than £100 million, as part of a major upgrade the electricity grid across the north of Scotland by SSEN Transmissions.
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray and Scottish Government climate action and energy minister Gillian Martin both attended a ceremony on Friday to celebrate the contract.
In the last 18 months, Had-Fab has increased its workforce from 120 to 197, with most based locally in East Lothian. Overall, the number of employees will rise to more than 250 over the next 12 months.
An additional 70 jobs are directly associated with the pylons work, with other posts also supported by SSEN Transmission grid upgrade projects.
Ian Murray said: “This is great news for our country’s clean power ambitions, and for more skilled jobs in here in Scotland.
“The significant investment in Had-Fab will help to support more than 250 jobs, creating opportunities and putting more money in people’s pockets.
“This work is critical to unlocking Scotland's vast renewable energy potential. The transmission towers being manufactured in East Lothian will form the backbone of the grid infrastructure we need to carry clean electricity generated by wind farms in the north of Scotland to benefit communities across Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.”
And Gillian Martin said:”Ensuring renewable power can flow from where it is generated to where it is needed is critical to Scotland’s just transition to net zero and for fully realising the economic opportunities from our abundant resources.
“I welcome this investment by SSEN Transmission to upgrade the grid across the north of Scotland and ensure companies based in Scotland benefit from the supply chain opportunities.
“It is also vital that local communities and businesses benefit from all aspects of our green revolution and just energy transition to net zero. We are committed to working with partners to ensure the delivery of renewable energy comes with benefits for people in Scotland, and support a green and growing economy in which nobody is left behind.”
The pylons are for the proposed Spittal – Loch Buidhe – Beauly overhead line electricity transmission project.
As the transmission operator for the north of Scotland, SSEN Transmission expects to invest at least £22bn in the period to March 2031 as part of a wider renewal of the electricity transmission system across Great Britain to enable the homegrown low-carbon electricity needed to deliver UK and Scottish targets on clean power and energy.
Rob McDonald, Managing Director of SSEN Transmission said: “The scale of this work secured by Had-Fab demonstrates the major economic opportunities that are generated by investing to upgrade our electricity transmission infrastructure.
“Maximising the opportunities presented by Scotland’s clean power potential and growing the economy to support high quality jobs go hand in hand. That is exactly what is happening here in East Lothian, and in many other communities across the country, and demonstrates that we have supply chain companies with the skills and experience to support the journey we must complete to a clean power future.”