The Hydro generated 6074 kilowatt hours in December 2024. This is the 3rd highest monthly total since operations began. It was helped by the Pitmain Flood Alleviation scheme that smoothed out the effect of heavy rain showers and snow melt.
The level of the River Gynack at Kingussie can rise very quickly if there is heavy rain in hills behind. As well as potential flooding, this can result in large amounts of sediment including huge boulders being brought down. Following the damage caused by ex-hurricane Bertha in 2014, Pitmain Estate and Highland council initiated a
2022 was one of the best of the 8 years that the Hydro has been in operation. There were no mechanical or electrical breakdowns and almost 45000 kilowatt-hours were generated, which is exactly in line with the original business case. This is despite there being no generation during several weeks in the summer, power cuts
Following the repairs to the Coanda screen, November was a record month for electricity generation. 6718 kWh were produced, compared with the previous record of 6023 kWh in April 2015.
September was also a relatively dry month and the electrical output generated was less than half of the average for that month. The improvement arising from the new Coanda screen could not be judged until wet weather returned at the end of the month. Rainy days have continued through October and the new screen sections
The Coanda screen across the weir has now had 7 years of operation. In 2014 Hurricane Bertha caused some damage that was not obvious at the time by flattening some of the curved stainless steel plates at the top of the screen. This meant that some of the water spilled over the weir without going
The ice has retreated a bit and has allowed the hydro to restart. There has not been much snowmelt yet so it is only generating about 1kW. Today is the 6th anniversary of its commissioning.
The hydro finally succumbed to the ice at half past seven on Friday evening. It had been restarting automatically but eventually there was not enough water flow to keep it going for more than a few minutes. It had been -17°C in Kingussie early on Friday morning…
