Plans for infrastructure to support a colossal offshore wind farm were backed by councillors yesterday.
It comes after Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd (MORL) was granted consent for up to 186 turbines to be built 14 miles from the Caithness coastline last year.
As part of the onshore works required Aberdeenshire councillors backed plans to build two electricity substations near New Deer and 20 miles of underground cable to run Inverboyndie, near Banff.
The firm has now asked to change one of the conditions of the deal to allow it to begin work on the substations early.
Members of the Buchan area committee raised no objections when they considered the request yesterday.
Speaking at the first meeting in the council’s new Buchan House headquarters in Peterhead, committee chairman Stuart Pratt said: “This is just a phasing change.”
Vice chairwoman Anne Allan added: “It’s a very sensible course of action.”
In the report delivered to councillors, infrastructure chief Stephen Archer said: “The purpose of the application is to allow work to be carried out on the substation site before the matters specified which relate to the cable route and landfall site at Inverboyndie have been approved.
“In order to achieve the contracted grid connection date as specified by the Transmission Owner (Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission, SHE-T), the applicant must start work on the substation site in early 2016.
“The finalised cable route and landing area will not be established until after that time.”
Moray Offshore Renewables spokesman Craig Milroy said separating the construction of the substation from the time-consuming cable planning phase meant the firm could complete the project faster.