Institution news
Q: Could you briefly explain your role and involvement in hydropower?
Alan Wilson (AW): Buccleuch have entered into a Joint Venture with Forsa Energy to develop a Pumped Storage project at Glenmuckloch in Scotland. The Section 36 Consent has been obtained for the project from the Scottish Government for a scheme of up to 400MW.
Q: In your experience, what is the number one challenge facing engineers specialising in hydropower?
AW: A major difficulty is getting the economics for the projects to stack up. There is a need to have a longer term certainty on the revenue line to help justify the investment.
Q: What is the most exciting development in this field at the moment, either within your company or in the industry in general?
AW: Pumped storage is a niche area within hydro and hence this is a very exciting project within Buccleuch. I do not foresee a future that will see several of these plants built in the UK – the fact that they have not been built since privatisation speaks volumes for this, however, we are now taking a lot of traditional forms of generation out of the network with coal soon to be gone and with gas likely to be not too far behind. These have been replaced with intermittent forms of power generation, so there is a need for technologies that will assist in the balancing of supply and demand for electrical power.
Q: What do you see for the future of hydropower development and engineering over the next 5–10 years?
AW: I fear that 5–10 years may not be a long enough window to see significant change. Much of the problems that power projects face is the access to grid and this can often be such that grid connections for any new projects may be getting out towards the end of the 10 year window.
Q: What are you most looking forward to by presenting at the seminar?
AW: Within Buccleuch, we have a passion for the pumped storage project and welcome the opportunity to share our thoughts on the potential development with others.
Q: Which sessions are you most looking forward to hearing?
AW: I am looking forward to SSE Generation Development’s session on Coire Glas at the event.
Q: Why should hydropower engineers join this seminar?
AW: Looking at the agenda, it has a number of interesting presentations planned for the day, spanning from refurbishment of existing assets to the development of new ones, which are being delivered by a broad spectrum of organisations from utility company and technology provider through to the landowner
Find out more
Alan will be speaking at Hydropower Engineering: Technologies, Projects and Future Developments seminar on 14 June 2018 in London. Join him and other experts from SSE Generation Development, First Hydro, Andritz Hydro, Voith Hydro, Mott MacDonald, Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd and more.
Key programme highlights:
- First Hydro Company and Voith Hydro discuss the Ffestiniog pump storage refurbishment and modernisation project
- SSE Generation Development share a case study about the Coire Glas Pumped Storage scheme
- Hear about the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon project from Tidal Lagoon Power
- Tidal Electric Ltd discusses the feasibility of building an offshore tidal lagoon power plant in the Solway
- Learn more about adding flywheel function to pumped storage from Andritz Hydro
- Mott Macdonald share insights on the future of hydropower
For further information, visit the Hydropower Engineering: Technologies, Projects and Future Developments event page.