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Glendoe Hydro Scheme
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Glendoe Hydro Scheme
The Glendoe Hydro Scheme for the generation of hydro-electric power is located in the Monadhliath Mountains near Fort Augustus, above Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. The change in financial incentives following the publication of the Renewables Obligation in 2001 caused Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) to reconsider a number of schemes that had been mothballed in the 1960s by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, and plans for the Glendoe scheme were resurrected.
Construction started in 2006, and Hochtief completed the scheme in 2009. It is operated by SSE and was opened on 29 June 2009 by Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh. Part of the main headrace tunnel collapsed in August 2009, and remedial work was not completed until 2012, with generation restarting in April. SSE and Hochtief failed to agree on who was responsible for the cost of the failure, but SSE were awarded damages in 2018 in the court of appeal, despite an adjudication and the first court case finding that the cost was an operational risk to be borne by SSE.
The completion of several schemes by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board in the early 1960s brought to an end over two decades of expansion of conventional hydro-electricity in the Highlands of Scotland. Subsequently, Cruachan was commissioned in 1968, and Foyers in 1974, but both of these were pumped storage schemes.
In 2001, the Scottish Parliament set an objective of increasing the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources to 18 per cent by 2010, as part of their Scottish Climate Change Programme. The publication of the Renewables Obligation in 2001 made any new hydro-electric scheme eligible under the incentive, whereas previously only those under 10 Megawatts (MW) had qualified. This changed the financial incentives for building new hydro-electric plants, and SSE plc, who inherited most of the Hydro-Electric Board's assets when the electricity industry was privatised, reviewed all of the large schemes that the Board had considered, but which had not been built. Nearly all had been abandoned because of their environmental impact in areas which had a high amenity value, but the exception was Glendoe.
Various configurations were then considered, from a small run-of-the-river scheme generating under 10 MW, to a huge pumped storage scheme. The smaller schemes were discarded because of the cost of transferring the water from the Glendoe plateau down to Loch Ness, while the pumped storage option was discarded because it would not qualify under the Renewable Obligation scheme, and because the difference in levels between the top reservoir and Loch Ness was sufficient that it would be extremely costly to overcome the issues this would introduce. Once the choice of Glendoe was made in October 2001, an environmental statement was produced and the design was refined by May 2003. SSE then applied for planning consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, and this was eventually granted in June 2005.
Although there were few objections to the scheme, and the local community was supportive, SSE did not know how long the planning consent process would take, and so began a design and build tendering process which ran concurrently. Because they could not undertake investigative work until deals with the landowners had been agreed, the design was kept flexible throughout the process. The turbine house might be above or below ground, the output of the scheme could be between 50 MW and 100 MW, while the dam could be constructed of rockfill or roller compacted concrete. A contract for the scheme was awarded to Hochtief in December 2005, and they began producing the detailed designs and starting construction from January 2006.
Before work could start on the main scheme, various enabling works had to be done. The bridge that carries the B862 road over the River Tarff near Fort Augustus had to be strengthened to cope with the weight of construction vehicles, and this work was done in five weeks starting on 21 November 2005. A refurbished tunnel boring machine was ordered from Herrenknecht, a start was made on the 28 miles (45 km) of roads needed to access the various sites where work was to be carried out, and a planning application was made to allow work camps to be constructed. These were built high up on the Glendoe plateau, and accommodated most of the 750 workers who were employed on the project.
A ceremony attended by Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and Jack McConnell, the First Minister of Scotland, marked the formal start of construction. They detonated an explosive charge, to begin the reshaping of the valley. A reservoir for the scheme was created by building a dam across the River Tarff. The dam is 3,150 feet (960 m) long, and some 115 feet (35 m) high where it crosses the original course of the river, but much lower at the sides. It is a rock fill dam, with most of the rock coming from a quarry which was flooded as the reservoir filled with water. The upstream side is faced with concrete, while the downstream side is exposed rock. The dam cannot be seen from any of the houses and public roads in the area.
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Glendoe Hydro Scheme
The Glendoe Hydro Scheme for the generation of hydro-electric power is located in the Monadhliath Mountains near Fort Augustus, above Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. The change in financial incentives following the publication of the Renewables Obligation in 2001 caused Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) to reconsider a number of schemes that had been mothballed in the 1960s by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, and plans for the Glendoe scheme were resurrected.
Construction started in 2006, and Hochtief completed the scheme in 2009. It is operated by SSE and was opened on 29 June 2009 by Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh. Part of the main headrace tunnel collapsed in August 2009, and remedial work was not completed until 2012, with generation restarting in April. SSE and Hochtief failed to agree on who was responsible for the cost of the failure, but SSE were awarded damages in 2018 in the court of appeal, despite an adjudication and the first court case finding that the cost was an operational risk to be borne by SSE.
The completion of several schemes by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board in the early 1960s brought to an end over two decades of expansion of conventional hydro-electricity in the Highlands of Scotland. Subsequently, Cruachan was commissioned in 1968, and Foyers in 1974, but both of these were pumped storage schemes.
In 2001, the Scottish Parliament set an objective of increasing the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources to 18 per cent by 2010, as part of their Scottish Climate Change Programme. The publication of the Renewables Obligation in 2001 made any new hydro-electric scheme eligible under the incentive, whereas previously only those under 10 Megawatts (MW) had qualified. This changed the financial incentives for building new hydro-electric plants, and SSE plc, who inherited most of the Hydro-Electric Board's assets when the electricity industry was privatised, reviewed all of the large schemes that the Board had considered, but which had not been built. Nearly all had been abandoned because of their environmental impact in areas which had a high amenity value, but the exception was Glendoe.
Various configurations were then considered, from a small run-of-the-river scheme generating under 10 MW, to a huge pumped storage scheme. The smaller schemes were discarded because of the cost of transferring the water from the Glendoe plateau down to Loch Ness, while the pumped storage option was discarded because it would not qualify under the Renewable Obligation scheme, and because the difference in levels between the top reservoir and Loch Ness was sufficient that it would be extremely costly to overcome the issues this would introduce. Once the choice of Glendoe was made in October 2001, an environmental statement was produced and the design was refined by May 2003. SSE then applied for planning consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989, and this was eventually granted in June 2005.
Although there were few objections to the scheme, and the local community was supportive, SSE did not know how long the planning consent process would take, and so began a design and build tendering process which ran concurrently. Because they could not undertake investigative work until deals with the landowners had been agreed, the design was kept flexible throughout the process. The turbine house might be above or below ground, the output of the scheme could be between 50 MW and 100 MW, while the dam could be constructed of rockfill or roller compacted concrete. A contract for the scheme was awarded to Hochtief in December 2005, and they began producing the detailed designs and starting construction from January 2006.
Before work could start on the main scheme, various enabling works had to be done. The bridge that carries the B862 road over the River Tarff near Fort Augustus had to be strengthened to cope with the weight of construction vehicles, and this work was done in five weeks starting on 21 November 2005. A refurbished tunnel boring machine was ordered from Herrenknecht, a start was made on the 28 miles (45 km) of roads needed to access the various sites where work was to be carried out, and a planning application was made to allow work camps to be constructed. These were built high up on the Glendoe plateau, and accommodated most of the 750 workers who were employed on the project.
A ceremony attended by Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and Jack McConnell, the First Minister of Scotland, marked the formal start of construction. They detonated an explosive charge, to begin the reshaping of the valley. A reservoir for the scheme was created by building a dam across the River Tarff. The dam is 3,150 feet (960 m) long, and some 115 feet (35 m) high where it crosses the original course of the river, but much lower at the sides. It is a rock fill dam, with most of the rock coming from a quarry which was flooded as the reservoir filled with water. The upstream side is faced with concrete, while the downstream side is exposed rock. The dam cannot be seen from any of the houses and public roads in the area.
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