Drax is submitting an application for planning consent to build a new underground pumped storage hydro power station which would more than double the electricity generating capacity at Hollow Mountain Cruachan plant in Scotland.
Drax must secure consent under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 from the Scottish Government – a process which will take around one year to complete from the application’s submission.
Alongside a successful Section 36 application, the project will also require an updated policy and market support mechanism from the UK Government.
The existing lack of a framework for long-duration electricity storage and flexibility technologies means that private investment cannot currently be secured in new pumped storage hydro projects, with no new plants built anywhere in the UK since 1984 despite their critical role in decarbonisation
Drax said the development will provide critical storage capacity will be a major infrastructure project which will support around 900 jobs during six years of construction across the supply chain in a range of industries from quarrying and engineering, to transport and hospitality.
Around 150 on-site local construction jobs will be created during the development.
The up to 600MW power station will be located inside Ben Cruachan – Argyll’s highest mountain –and increase the site’s total capacity to 1GW.
The plant will be housed within a new, hollowed-out cavern which would be large enough to fit Big Ben on its side. Around two million tonnes of rock will be excavated to create the cavern, tunnels, and other parts of the power station.
The new plant could be operational in 2030, providing critical stability services to the power system by acting like a giant water battery.
It will use reversible turbines to pump water from Loch Awe to the upper reservoir on the mountainside to store excess power from wind farms and other low carbon technologies when supply outstrips demand and then use this stored water to generate renewable power when it is needed.
A new generation of pumped storage hydro plants can play a major role in reducing emissions and significantly cutting the UK’s reliance on imported gas through their storage and flexibility services.