Abstract
AN aggregate of 102,000 kilowatt of plant is installed in five power stations in Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire in the south-west of Scotland. When the Water-Power Sources Committee presented its report in 1924, this portion of Scotland was defined as a place where there were possibilities of water-power development, but it was not surveyed as no commercial outlet for the power could then be visualized. The formation of the Grid, by providing the necessary power outlet, showed how a commercial application was possible, and the present hydroelectric scheme was developed as an important factor in the Central Scotland Grid scheme. In the Electrical Times for June 25 there is a detailed account of this scheme, called the Galloway Water Power Scheme, which generates the greatest amount of hydroelectric power of any station in Great Britain. In any power scheme the peak units are by far the most expensive. With steam generation, for example, a large amount of plant capacity has to be provided to cover the period of maximum demand. Daily peaks also occurring at regular intervals are expensive owing to the stand-by coal required. In these circumstances, we can see that hydro-electric plant, which can pick up and drop load at very short notice either in normal operation or in emergency, is a very valuable asset. The Galloway undertaking is unique amongst power stations, as it was planned and carried out as a peak load station instead of supplying the usual basic load. It has already proved valuable during the sharp rise and fall of the Glasgow industrial load at the midday dinner hour and other similar occasions. It is satisfactory to learn that after the results of the first twelve months' operation of the first half of the scheme, which includes the two power stations of Tongland and Glenlee, having plant aggregating 57,000 kilowatt, the financial future of the undertaking seems assured.
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Britain's Largest Hydro-Electric Development. Nature 138, 19–20 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138019b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138019b0