About Glendoe

SSE continued its hydro heritage with the construction of the first large-scale conventional hydro electric station to be built in Scotland for almost 50 years. The site is alongside Loch Ness, near Fort Augustus at Glendoe. We first generated electricity at Glendoe in December 2008, which was two months ahead of schedule and in its first six months output totalled over 100GWh.

In August 2009, we identified a blockage caused by a fall of rock in the tunnel.  The repair meant we needed to build two new tunnels. We created the tunnels using the drill and blast method. The Glendoe hydro electric scheme resumed generating electricity in August 2012. 

The site is has capacity to power 53,000 homes. Based on a household consumption of 3,300 kWh a year.

Glendoe’s main operational feature is that it is able to start generating electricity at full capacity in just 90 seconds and can therefore help to meet changes in demand. In a year of average rainfall, its output should be around 180GWh of electricity.