Scottish and Southern Energy is proposing to develop two new pumped storage hydro electric schemes in the Great Glen.
The company will first need to receive a formal opinion from the Scottish government on the scope of the environmental impact statement that would accompany planning applications for the schemes, which will most likely be submitted during 2011.
The two projects would become the first pumped storage schemes to be developed in Great Britain since work began on the Dinorwig scheme in Wales in 1974.
Scottish and Southern Energy have only recently completed the 50-year development of Great Britain's conventional hydroelectric station at Glendoe near Loch Ness, which was officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen yesterday.
Subject to final agreements and design, it is envisaged the proposed schemes would have an installed capacity of between 300MW and 600MW each and be able to produce in excess of 1,000GWh of electricity in a typical year to help meet peak demand. In both cases, the upper reservoirs would be large, enabling electricity generation to continue for longer periods, without the need to pump water from the loch below, than is the case for other pumped storage schemes in Great Britain.
Both schemes would require the construction of a dam in order to impound water and create the upper reservoirs, but it is currently envisaged that water pumping and electricity generation at both developments will be carried out under ground, thereby avoiding any visual impact in the Great Glen itself.
"Our goal is to maintain a diversified portfolio of power stations, with the flexibility to respond to customer demand for electricity, while achieving a 50% reduction in the carbon dioxide intensity of electricity produced,” said Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy. ”Pumped storage can help us achieve this goal and, after 30 years, I believe this is a technology whose time can come again."
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