National Power of the UK has announced plans to develop two new hydro power plants. Construction of a £1M (US$1.5M), 590kW hydroelectric project near Auchtertyre in Perthshire, Scotland will start in April 2000 and will be completed by the end of the year. The project will supply electricity for around 2500 people.
Work at another £1M station at Glen Tarbert, near Fort William in Scotland will also start this year and be completed by autumn. The 850kW station will be powered by the waters of the Alt Corie na Creiche and Gleain Feaith n’Amean burns near Strontian. Installation of the power plant will be carried out by Hydro Contracting of Scotland, and the building of the pipeline and other civil works will be carried out by North Wales-based company Mulcair. Hydrocink from the Czech republic will supply the turbine.
The construction of both stations will be managed by Caledonian Energy, a local developer of hydroelectric projects. Both projects have secured power contracts under the government’s Scottish Renewables (SRO) scheme, which was established to encourage the development of renewable energy sources.
National Power has about 50MW of hydro capacity in the UK and aims to develop its portfolio of small hydro schemes.