A LANDMARK power station in the heart of Edinburgh's financial district is to be demolished and replaced in a £50 million project to provide more electricity for the city.
Under the plans, the ageing substation, near ScottishPower's Dewar Place headquarters, will be replaced with a brand new facility designed to meet the growing energy needs of the city centre.
The move will see the 50-year-old facility - which is
lit up at night in ScottishPower's corporate colours of green and purple - demolished with the site either landscaped or sold to developers.
The new substation will be built in a former workshop building at the firm's headquarters, which will be specially modified to house the equipment.
The scheme is understood to have been based on similar facilities in Japan, where basement offices have modified to contain new power generators to supply power for major cities such as Tokyo.
A ScottishPower spokesman said that the move would "completely modernise" Edinburgh's power supplies.
He said: "Although it has served the city well over the years, it is in desperate need of refurbishment.
"At the moment, it is a bit of an eyesore site that will eventually be replaced with something far better that will reflect the area's status as a gateway to Edinburgh.
"With all of the new developments in the financial district and the new flats and offices being built in Fountainbridge, we need to supply more power to this part of the city and this new station will be able to do that.
"It is state-of-the-art equipment that we are spending a lot of money on and it will improve the electricity supply in Edinburgh for the next 100 years."
The scheme has already won the backing of city planning officials, who said that the new facility would benefit the whole city and remove an unsightly, exposed power station from the financial district.
In a report to councillors, the city's head of planning and strategy Alan Henderson said: "The new apparatus will be reduced in size and will be smaller and less noisy than the existing facility, so the impact on local amenity will be improved."
In 1997, the substation won an Environmental Regeneration Award from Scottish Natural Heritage and Scottish Enterprise, who praised the energy firm for turning it "from a purely functional facility into something which is a substantial piece of public art".
In the late 1990s it won two awards for its floodlit design.
But Roy Durie, a director with city property agents Ryden, said that the new facility would be "hugely beneficial" to the city.
He added: "This site is a bit of an eyesore, so it will be great for the area to see it tidied up.
"The new substation is going to provide more power to cope with all of the new developments in and around the city centre, so this will be hugely beneficial for Edinburgh."
The plans are expected to be approved by councillors at a meeting tomorrow.
