ENGIE And CDPQ To Invest Up To £1bn In UK Pumped Storage Hydro Assets
The title of this post, is the same as a news item from ENGIE.
These four bullet points act as sub-headings.
- Refurbishment programme to extend life of plants at Dinorwig and Ffestiniog will ensure the UK’s security of supply and support the transition to a low carbon energy future
- ENGIE owns 75% of the plants via First Hydro Company, a 75:25 joint venture with Canadian investment group CDPQ
- The two pumped storage hydro plants are the UK’s leading provider of power storage and flexibility, with 2.1GW of installed capacity
- They represent 5% of the UK’s total installed power generation capacity and 74% of the UK’s pumped storage hydro capacity
These three paragraphs give more details.
The preparation of a 10-year project of refurbishment at *ENGIE’s Dinorwig pumped storage station has begun, following an 8-year refurbishment at Ffestiniog, enabling the delivery of clean energy whenever needed.
These flexible generation assets, based in North Wales, are essential to the UK Government’s accelerated target of achieving a net zero carbon power grid by 2030. Together they help keep the national electricity system balanced, offering instant system flexibility at short notice. The plants are reaching end of life and replanting will ensure clean energy can continue to flow into the next few decades.
Re-planting could see the complete refurbishment of up to all six generating units at Dinorwig – a final investment decision is still to be made on the number of units to replace – while the re-planting at Ffestiniog will be completed at the end of 2025. The program also involves the replacement of main inlet valves – with full drain down of the stations – and detailed inspections of the water shafts.
It also looks like the complete refurbishment at Dinorwig will take ten years, as it seems they want to keep as much of the capacity available as possible.
When the replanting is complete, the two power plants will be good for twenty-five years.
Hopefully, by the time Dinorwig has been replanted, some of the next generation of pumped storage hydroelectric power stations are nearing completion.
The news item says this about Dinorwig.
Dinorwig, the largest and fastest-acting pumped storage station in Europe, followed in 1984 and was regarded as one of the world’s most imaginative engineering and environmental projects.
Dinorwig must be good, if a French company uses those words about British engineering of the 1980s.
Ambitious £3bn Pumped Hydro Project At Loch Ness Moves Forward
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Sustainable Times.
These are the two introductory paragraphs.
A £3 billion pumped storage hydro (PSH) project near Scotland’s iconic Loch Ness is one step closer to becoming a reality. Glen Earrach Energy (GEE) confirmed on April 25th that it has officially submitted the planning application for its ambitious 2gw scheme.
If greenlit, this project would represent nearly three-quarters of the total PSH capacity planned for Loch Ness, contributing 34 GWh of the region’s 46 GWh storage goal. But it’s not just the storage that stands out. This development would also account for two-thirds of the generating capacity, all while using just half of the water previously considered. To put it into perspective, the project’s capacity would be on par with the combined output of around 800 onshore wind turbines scattered throughout the Highland Council area.
Note.
- The generating and pumping capacity for this ambitious scheme is given as 2 GW. Only three in China and one in the United States are larger.
- The storage capacity of 34 GWh will make it the largest in the UK, possibly the second largest in Europe to Ulla-Førre in Norway and one of the ten largest in the world.
- A projected 10% reduction in the UK grid’s carbon footprint is claimed.
- The cost of three billion is high, but compare that with the tens of billions quoted for the 3.26 GW Hinckley Point C.
The Glen Earrach scheme is not short on superlatives and the article in Sustainable Times is worth a thorough read.
Fifth Hydro Project Proposed At Loch Ness, is based on a BBC article of the same name.
These were my thoughts in the related post.
The Existing Hydro Schemes On Loch Ness
According to the BBC article, there are two existing hydro schemes on Loch Ness.
- Foyers is described on this web site and is a reasonably modern 305 MW/6.3 GWh pumped storage hydroelectric power station, that was built by SSE Renewables in the last fifty years.
- Glendoe is described on this web site and is a modern 106.5 MW conventional hydroelectric power station, that was built by SSE Renewables in the last twenty years.
Foyers and Glendoe may not be the biggest hydroelectric power stations, but they’re up there in size with most solar and onshore wind farms. Perhaps we should look for sites to develop 100 MW hydroelectric power stations?
The Proposed Hydro Schemes On Loch Ness
According to the BBC article, there are four proposed hydro schemes on Loch Ness.
- Coire Glas is described on this web site and will be a 1.5GW/30 GWh pumped storage hydroelectric power station, that is being developed by SSE Renewables.
- Fearna is described on this web site and will be a 1.8GW/37 GWh pumped storage hydroelectric power station, that is being developed by Gilkes Energy.
- Loch Kemp is described on this web site and will be a 600MW/9 GWh pumped storage hydroelectric power station, that is being developed by Statera.
- Loch Na Cathrach is described on this web site and will be a 450MW/2.8 GWh pumped storage hydroelectric power station, that is being developed by Statktaft.
In addition there is, there is the recently announced Glen Earrach.
- Glen Earrach is described on this web site and will be a 2GW/34 GWh pumped storage hydroelectric power station, that is being developed by Glen Earrach Energy.
Note.
- The total power of the seven pumped storage hydroelectric power stations is 4.76 GW.
- The total storage capacity is 89.1 GWh.
- The storage capacity is enough to run all turbines flat out for nearly nineteen hours.
I estimate that if 2 GW/34 GWh of pumped storage will cost £3 billion, then 4.76 GW/89.1 GWh of pumped storage will cost around £7-8 billion.
Earba 1.8GW Pumped Storage Hydro Project Secures Approval
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Solar Power Portal.
These three paragraphs introduce the article.
Gilkes Energy has been awarded planning consent for its Earba Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) scheme.
The Earba PSH scheme is set to be the largest project of its kind in the UK, with an installed capacity of 1.8GW and a storage capacity of 40GWh, meaning that it can provide 22 hours of storage at full power. The planning application for the project was submitted to the Scottish government in early March 2024.
The project will be located at Loch Earba in the Scottish central Highlands. Gilkes Energy states that this location was chosen because the area has an ideal combination of geology and topography, which the firm states will make it one of the most economically viable PSH projects under development in the UK.
In Gilkes Reveals 900MW Scottish Pumped Storage Plan, I said that Loch Earba was a 900 MW/33 MWh PSH scheme, but now it appears a it is 1.8 GW/40 GWh scheme, which will probably put it in the largest twenty PSH schemes in the world.
It will be one of four PSH schemes under development in Scotland.
- Coire Glas – 1.3 GW/30 GWh
- Loch Earba – 1.8 GW/40 GWh
- Loch na Cathrach (formerly known as Red John) – 450 MW/2.8 GWh
- Loch Sloy – 160 MW/16 GWh
In addition.
- Cruachan is being extended to 1 GW/7 GWh.
- Highview Power are planning to build two 200 MW/2.5 GWh of their liquid air batteries in Scotland.
Everything totals up to 5.1 GW/100.8 GWh, which compares with a UK electricity production as I write this article of just under 29.5 GW.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some high-energy industries moving to Scotland because of all this renewable and hopefully reliable power.
SSE Files Plans For 100 MW Pumped Hydro Scheme
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on reNews.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Proposal aims to convert iconic Sloy Power Station into storage facility by end of 2030
These three paragraphs outline the proposals.
SSE has submitted plans to the Scottish Government for the 100MW Sloy pumped storage hydro scheme.
The plans would see the existing Sloy Power Station – a conventional hydro power station – on the banks of Loch Lomond converted into a pumped storage hydro scheme with a pumping capacity of up to 100MW.
If given the green light, the converted Sloy scheme would be capable of delivering up to 16GWh of long-duration electricity storage capacity.
SSE intend to make an investment decision by late 2027 and this is said about increasing capacity.
As part of the planning application, SSE Renewables is also proposing to upgrade the existing 32.5MW G4 turbine to match its sister units, which would increase the station’s generating output by 7.5MW to 160MW.
This appears to be a world-class example of canny Scottish engineering.
The project would turn the current 152.5 MW hydroelectric power station into a 160 MW/16 GWh pumped storage hydroelectric power station.
Not a bad transformation, that was opened three years after I was born.
SSE And Gilkes Energy Submit Plans For Pumped Hydro Storage Project
The title of this post, is the same of this article in Solar Power Portal.
This is the sub-heading.
SSE Renewables and Gilkes energy have submitted a planning consent application to Scottish Ministers for a proposed Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) project.
These two paragraphs add more detail.
The Fearna PSH project is proposed as a 50:50 joint venture project between SSE and Gilkes Energy, with Gilkes Energy leading the development under a developer services agreement with SSE Renewables. The scheme will have an installed capacity of 1.8GW and a stored capacity of up to 36GWh, providing 20 hours of storage. If approved, the project would be the largest pumped hydro scheme in the UK.
The proposed site is located around 25km from Invergarry in the Scottish Highlands and adjoins SSE Renewables’ existing Loch Quoich reservoir, which forms part of the Great Glen hydro scheme. The development will include the construction of tunnels and a new power station that will connect the existing Loch Quoich reservoir to an upper reservoir at Loch Fearna.
This Google Map shows the location of Invergarry and Loch Quoich.
Note.
Loch Quoich is the dolphin-shaped loch at the West of the image.
Invergarry is indicated by the red dot at the East of the image.
This second Google Map shows the location of Loch Fearna to the North-East of Loch Quoich.
These are my thoughts.
It Will Be A Large Scheme
With an installed capacity of 1.8GW and a stored capacity of up to 36GWh, providing 20 hours of storage, this is not a small scheme.
Wikipedia’s Description Of Loch Quoich
This is the first two paragraphs of the Wikipedia entry for Loch Quoich.
Loch Quoich (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Chuaich) is a loch and reservoir situated west of Loch Garry approximately 40 km northwest of Fort William, Lochaber, Scotland. The name means “loch of the quaich”. In 1896, it was listed as six miles long and three-quarters of a mile in width, belonging to Mrs. Ellice of Glenquoich, within the parish of Kilmonivaig.
Both lochs form part of the Glen Garry hydroelectricity project commissioned by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board in the 1950s.
So is the Loch Fearna scheme, a massive repurposing of the existing Glen Garry hydroelectricity project?
I wrote about this before in Repurposing The Great Glen Hydro-Electric Scheme?
This map from the SSE Renewables web site shows the layout of the dams and power stations between Loch Quoich and Invergarry..
The sizes of the power stations in the scheme are as follows.
- Ceannacroc – 20 MW
- Livishie – 15 MW
- Glenmoriston- 37 MW
- Quoich – 18 MW
- Invergarry – 20 MW
- Mucomir – 1.7 MW
This gives a total power of 112.7 MW.
112.7 MW to 1.8 GW (1800 MW) is a colossal increase in power.
It should be noted that 1.8 GW is half the power of Hinckley Point C nuclear power station.
Europe’s Biggest Battery Storage Project Goes Live In Scotland
The title of this post, is the same, as this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Zenobe’s site at Blackhillock can store surplus generation for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine
These are the first two paragraphs.
Europe’s biggest battery storage project has entered commercial operation in Scotland, promising to soak up surplus wind power and prevent turbines being paid to switch off.
Zenobe said the first phase of its project at Blackhillock, between Inverness and Aberdeen, was now live with capacity to store enough power to supply 200 megawatts of electricity for two hours. It is due to be expanded to 300 megawatts by next year.
I believe we can do better, than install large lithium-ion batteries.
We need to get the pumped storage like Coire Glas, the liquid air like Highview Power and the gravity batteries like Gravitricity going as fast as we can.
They are more environmentally friendly than Tesla’s lithium ion tiddlers and a second generation liquid air battery appears to be 200 MW and 2.5 MWh, so they can supply 200 MW for 12.5 hours.
The Blackhillock battery can do just two hours.
Two of them working as a pair, with a 1 GW wind farm, are as big as a small modular nuclear reactor, so could do the same job, with respect to power supply, using machinery and tank designs, that have been used for decades.
I suspect, that like 1960s coal-fired power stations, they would keep running for fifty years and be simply recycled as steel, copper and other scrap.
Highview Power could make Bishops Stortford famous!
UK Government Sets 8-Hour Minimum For LDES Cap-And-Floor Sheme
The title of this post, is the sa,e as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
This is the sub-heading.
The UK government has published a Technical Decision Document confirming crucial aspects of its long duration electricity storage (LDES) cap-and-floor scheme, which includes increasing the minimum duration required from six hours to eight
These paragraphs give full details.
The document, released by regulator Ofgem on 11 March, details the final overarching rules and requirements for the scheme as well as how it will be implemented, though significant detail still remains to be worked out.
The scheme will provide a cap-and-floor revenue protection for 20-25 years that will allow all capital costs to be recoverable, and is effectively a subsidy for LDES projects that may not be commercially viable without it. Most energy storage projects being deployed in the UK today are lithium-ion battery energy storage systems (BESS) of somewhere between 1-hour and 3-hour in duration (very occasionally higher).
One of the most significant new details of the scheme is that, following industry feedback, the minimum duration for projects to qualify has been increased from six hours to eight hours of continuous rated power.
The ‘continuous rated power’ aspect prevents shorter duration projects from bidding in a smaller section of their MW capacity in order to act like an 8-hour system.
Another interesting detail pointed out by several commentators is that the cap is a ‘soft’ one, meaning it will allow extra revenue to be shared between developers and consumers. Exact details on the ratio are yet to be determined.
As a Graduate Control Engineer from Liverpool University in the 1960s, I hope that the move from a six to eight hours minimum duration is feasible.
I wasn’t dealing with power systems, but with multi-vessel chemical plants.
These are my thoughts.
The biggest project, I was dealing with a few years later in the 1970s, was the modeling of all the the reservoirs and pipelines by the Water Resoures Board.
As the supply side of the water industry hasn’t had too many issues with the volume of water supplied, I feel that the main modelers must have done a reasonable job.
Six To Eight Hours Of Continuous Operation
The article says this about uprating from six to eight hours of continuous operations.
All the systems that have been proposed for cap-and-floor operation, seem to have some form of physical storage.
- Energy Dome appears to have tents of carbon dioxide.
- Energy Vault uses stacks of heavy weights.
- Form Energy has tanks of rust.
- Gravitricity has huge weights in disued mine shafts.
- Highview Power has large tanks of liquid air.
- Pumped storage hydro has two lakes, that hold water.
- Rheenergise has two large tanks, of a water-based slurry.
So to go from six to eight hours will hopefully just need some more storage.
Highview Power appears to use similar gas tanks to those used to store natural gas or hydrogen.
This image clipped from Highview’s web site, shows large tanks for liquified gas storage.
With tanks like these, which can hold GW-equivalents of liquid air, Highview could be building batteries with storage to rival the smaller pumped storage hydroelectric power stations. They are already talking of 200 MW/2.5 GWh systems, which would have a 12.5 hour continuous rating and would probably need two to three tanks.
Coire Glas Pumped Storage
I’ll use Coire Glas pumped storage hydro electric power station as an example.
As currently planned SSE’s Cioire Glas pumped storage hydroelectric power station is 1.5 GW/30 GWh, so it has a a 20 hour continuous rating.
In The UK’s Pumped Storage Hydroelectricity, I gave a rough estimate of the pumped storage hydroelectricity systems in operation or planed as nearly 11 GW/224GWh.
The Soft Cap
The article says this about a soft cap.
Another interesting detail pointed out by several commentators is that the cap is a ‘soft’ one, meaning it will allow extra revenue to be shared between developers and consumers. Exact details on the ratio are yet to be determined.
I seem to remember that when I was modeling a larger multi-vessel chemical plant at ICI, I was using sharing between vessels, to get the system to operate on a PACE-231R analog computer.
So I suspect a soft cap is possible.
Drax To Get £24m In Green Subsidies For Pumped Hydro
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in The Times.
These three paragraphs give details of the subsidy.
Drax will bank £24 million in green subsidies from energy bill-payers for its pumped hydro assets, ahead of a revival in the energy storage technology in Britain.
The FTSE 250 constituent, which also operates Britain’s largest power station in North Yorkshire, has secured contracts to provide 434 megawatts of capacity from its pumped storage and hydro assets, the largest of which is the Cruachan power station near Oban in Scotland.
The contracts cover energy to be delivered between October 2028 to September 2029, at a price of £60 a kilowatt a year.
This will arouse the anti-Drax lobby, but it should be born in mind, that according to Wikipedia, Cruachan can provide a black start capability to the UK’s electrical grid.
This is Wikipedia’s definition of a black start.
A black start is the process of restoring an electric power station, a part of an electric grid or an industrial plant, to operation without relying on the external electric power transmission network to recover from a total or partial shutdown.
After the Great Storm of 1987, we were without power in my part of Suffolk for two weeks and I suspect there were several black starts in the South of England.
I suspect that power from interconnectors could now be used.
Drax is expanding Cruachan from 440 MW to 1 GW, which will be a large investment and surely increase its black start capability.
So in this case the future subsidy could be considered something like an insurance policy to make sure black start capability is available.
How To Keep The Lights On When The Wind Doesn’t Blow
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Britain came close to a blackout this month. Gas is being phased out and renewables are intermittent, so can energy storage stop us going dark?
These are the first two paragraphs.
It was 8.29pm on the first Tuesday in January when the alert was issued by the electricity control room. Freezing temperatures had coincided with unusually low wind speeds, and it was making the National Energy System Operator (Neso) jittery.
Engineers forecast a 1.6GW shortfall — the requirement for about 1.5 million homes — for a three-hour period from 4pm the following afternoon. “System operators are requested to notify Neso of any additional megawatt capacity,” the message said.
Luckily, the plea worked.
The article then goes on to describe the various technologies that are being deployed.
The article starts by talking about pumped storage hydroelectricity.
This paragraph gives a superb illustration about how things have changed in energy and energy storage in the UK in the last few decades.
In the past, when coal provided the bulk of British power, this system was used to meet fluctuating demand levels. But now it is also required to meet fluctuating supply levels from renewable sources. Martin Pibworth, chief commercial officer at SSE, started with the company as a trainee in 1998. “Back then, at our Foyers pumped storage plant [at Loch Ness] we would switch modes, from pumping to not pumping and back again, maybe 600 to 700 times a year. Last year we switched modes there 6,500 times. It’s an insight into how the market has changed and how much more flexibility is needed, and how responsive that has to be.”
We have to be more agile, with our handling of storage to back up the various methods of generation.
Pumped Storage Hydro In The Highlands – Is Anywhere Still Off Limits?
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on UK Climbing.
This is the sub-heading.
Are the enormous Earba and Fearna hydro projects merely the thin end of an ever bigger wedge? Thanks to a relaxed developer-friendly planning regime, is anywhere in Highland Scotland now safe from energy projects designed to feed an insatiable demand down south? In pursuit of clean power, do we risk permitting huge and irreparable harm across our remaining wild habitats and scenic land? And if so, what (and who) is it all really in aid of? It’s not too late to shed light on the murky world of Highland mega-energy, says Jane Meek, but time is running out for our mountain heritage.
These are the first three paragraphs.
In case you haven’t heard, Earba is the codename for a massive pumped storage hydro scheme to be hosted by Ardverikie Estate of Monarch of the Glen fame on behalf of Gilkes Energy, a Lakes-based engineering firm hitherto better known as a developer of small-scale run-of-river hydro schemes on Scottish burns and rivers. Some of these may be familiar to you: they include Pattack on Ardverikie Estate, Ben Glas on Glen Falloch Estate near Crianlarich, and Neaty Burn in Glen Strathfarrar, to name just three.
Gilkes Energy has now moved up into the big league of pumped storage hydro (PSH). Visit their homepage to admire a brief slide show of projects past, present and in planning. It’s glossy professional stuff, just what you’d expect from the self-styled “leading independent developer” of conventional hydro and PSH in the UK.
The aerial shots are particularly fine but… hang on a minute… isn’t that Loch a’ Bhealaich Leamhain down there, gleaming like a pearl in the high pass between Munros Beinn a’ Chlachair and Mullach Coire an Iubhair (Geal Charn as was)? And … oh dear, isn’t that Loch Fearna, the glittering shelf lochan below Spidean Mialach, immortalised in countless photographs by walkers crossing the col between Spidean and neighbouring Gleouraich? From the slopes above Fearna, the views across Loch Quoich to Gairich and beyond are simply stunning. After watching the slide show, you may feel simply stunned.
The author of the article makes a statement and asks a question.
It’s industrialisation on a vast scale. Are these truly the right schemes in the right places?
The author may have a point, but environmentalists will argue that saving the planet is more important and that pumped storage hydroelectricity is one of the technologies, that will help us do that!
The Anonymous Widower 