New hydro power projects planned

The Glendoe hydro electric scheme is Scotland's biggest in 50 years

Scottish and Southern Energy has announced plans for a further two major hydro power projects in the Highlands.

The Perth-based company said the projects in the Great Glen would be the first developed in Britain since 1974.

The proposals were made ahead of the official opening of the Glendoe hydro electric station near Loch Ness.

Scottish and Southern has not revealed where the two new projects would be built but said they would produce electricity to help meet peak demand.

The system involves two bodies of water, located at different heights.

During periods of low demand for power, electricity is used to pump water from the lower loch to the upper reservoir and this water is then released to create power at a time when demand is high.

'Every house'

The chief executive of SSE, Ian Marchant, said if the company got permission to build the two new pumping stations then together they would produce 10 times the amount of electricity produced by Glendoe.

He said: "If we build those two then the total amount of hydro output in Scotland would be able to power every house in Scotland at the time of system peak."

Both projects would need a dam to create upper reservoirs, but the company said that water pumping and electricity generation at both developments would be carried out underground.

SSE already owns and operates a pumped storage scheme at Foyers, on the south side of Loch Ness.

It said it planned to develop a similar system at the existing Sloy hydro electric power station at Loch Lomond.

The firm has asked the Scottish Government for its formal opinion on the new schemes.

SSE said that it would submit planning applications for both in 2011 and if all goes to plan then the schemes would come on stream by 2017.