Contract award
Eight year HVDC cable framework awarded for Scottish transmission network
By Staff Writer | 23 August 2026
A framework agreement for the delivery of high voltage direct current cable projects on the Scottish transmission network has been recorded as awarded, with the contract concluded on 8 July 2026 and the award notice published six weeks later on 21 August 2026. The notice carries the identifier 2026/S 000-079757.
The contracting entity is SSE plc, at Inveralmond House, 200 Dunkeld Road, Perth, with the main activity recorded as electricity. The framework is described as a framework agreement for the delivery of Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc high voltage direct current cable projects for a period of eight years. The contract carries the number 36398 and the type of contract is recorded as works. The place of performance is Scotland.
The notice names no supplier and publishes no value. Both fields a reader would look for first are simply absent from the record, and the card for this item leaves its value empty for that reason. What the notice does confirm is that a contract or lot has been awarded, and the date on which the contract was concluded.
The classifications set out what the framework is expected to cover. The main classification is ancillary works for electricity power lines. The additional classifications are power distribution cables, installation of cable infrastructure, and electrical power systems design services. Design sitting alongside installation and supply in the same framework points to a delivery model in which the framework holder carries design responsibility rather than building to a fully developed employer's design.
The procedure is recorded as a negotiated procedure with prior call for competition, and the procurement is recorded as involving the establishment of a framework agreement. The notice states that the procurement is not covered by the Government Procurement Agreement. The contract is not divided into lots and no options are recorded. The previous publication concerning this procedure is given as a notice from 2022, so the call for competition that produced this award was made four years before the contract was concluded.
What the practitioner should take from this
That gap is the part of the record worth pausing on. A call for competition in 2022, a contract concluded on 8 July 2026 and a notice published on 21 August 2026 describe a procurement that has run for a long time against a delivery programme that has not stood still. An eight year term running from a 2026 conclusion reaches well into the 2030s.
The review body is recorded as Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc at the same Perth address, which is the licensed transmission owner for the north of Scotland and the entity whose projects the framework is stated to serve. SSE plc is named as the contracting entity, so the buying is done at group level for the transmission business.
Anyone trying to size this from the record will not be able to. There is no framework value, no supplier, no number of framework holders, no lot structure, no named project and no schedule of works. The eight year term and the four classifications are the whole of what is published on scope, and nothing further is inferred here. A reader wanting the commercial shape of the framework will need the underlying documents rather than the notice.