Hydro energy

Hydro-electric power is a well established, reliable, renewable technology.  Installations with impounded water are flexible because they can store energy and respond to fluctuations in electricity demand and balance output from other more intermittent renewable sources of electricity. This essential for ensuring constant electricity supply into the future.

SSE owns and operates more than 50 hydro electric power stations, with a total capacity of 1450MW. This includes 300MW of pumped storage.  Although the industry is mature, there are still good opportunities to exploit hydro-electric power resources in the UK. There is an estimated 600MW of financially viable resource to exploit in Scotland alone.  In 2009 SSE built the 100MW Glendoe station, near Loch Ness, the first large-scale hydro-electric power station  to be built in Scotland in over 50 years.

Hydro-electric power currently receives financial support of one Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) per MWh produced under the Renewables Obligation (RO). That means 4.5p-19.9p per MWh produced under the feed-in tariff, if the installation's capacity is under 5MW and built on or after the 15th July 2009.  The Government's proposed Electricity Market Reform is due to replace the support mechanism under the RO with a new low carbon generation support mechanism for new build above 5MW.  However support mechanisms for previous investments will be allowed to continue to ensure investor confidence.