Rising water at new Highland dam raises hopes

Water from River Tarff along with many other rivers is rising behind the newly constructed dam at Loch Ness. The hydro-electric project, costing £150m, is located above Fort Augustus. With water levels rising, the project is expected to go into operational phase very soon. This project by Scottish and Southern Energy has capacity to generate 100mW of electrical energy, which is enough to provide power to Glasgow.

The dam requires 12.7 million cubic metre of water for the plant to go into operation. For this, two square km of surface area behind the dam will get submerged. The water from the dam will be discharged through pipes to an underground power station located 8 km downhill and then let-off back into Loch Ness.

The plant is expected to go fully operational by Dec 2008 and will connect to the grid by early 2009. It is the second largest hydro plant amongst 80 such projects in Scotland. Most of these are of 1940s and 1950s vintage against stiff opposition from landowners.

This project, called Glendoe, is the first hydro-electric power station to be built in Scotland in 50 years amongst large-scale projects. The project will reinforce Scotland’s long standing tradition of hydro-power generation.

The Scottish Government envisages meeting 50% of electricity demand through renewable energy by 2020. Presently, such projects, including those in approved and installation stages total a capacity of 4.5 GW. This is pretty much in line with the target of 5 GW by 2011.

Please visit www.scottosh-southern.co.uk for more details