Your Hydro is proud to have been involved in the inauguration of the Buckny Burn Hydro Scheme in Butterstone village near Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland, officially opened by the local MP and Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, on 25 September 2015.
Your Hydro, formerly known as Newmills Engineering, designed, manufactured, installed and commissioned the twin-jet vertical pelton turbine rated at 500 kW, under contract to the Buckny Hydro partners with a project completion date of October 2014. In its first year of operation the scheme has generated close to the expected energy despite being a relatively dry year. The scheme has been running very effectively due to the good intake and pipeline design and project planning and execution under Hydro Survey Ltd. with civil works completed by MAM Contracting, with the efficient operation of the Newmills turbine which can operate down to very low powers and utilises even the smallest flows from the burn.
During the switch-on, John Swinney commented “this project overcame significant hurdles in its development and that with the good engineering applied it can now demonstrate how sustainable energy solutions are so important within Scotland’s energy mix.”
Afterwards the guests were invited to the Butterstone New School for refreshments and a chance to see how the Buckny Hydro partners are involved in community-wide activities, supported by the income generated by the hydro scheme. The switch-on was attended by a team from Your Hydro which included Simon Taylor, Commercial Director, Terry Maguire, Principal Hydro Engineer and Tom Farr, Hydro Project Manager and Design Engineer.
Mr. Maguire was thanked by Buckny Hydro’s Alex Linklater for his consistent technical support in realising the project’s objectives. Mr. Maguire summarised the day by adding “to have been involved in the Buckny Hydro Scheme from early 2013 to this day has been a pleasure. Newmills has taken care of every technical detail from the Main Inlet Valve to the feed of electricity to the grid and is very proud of the beautifully crafted turbine that will give years of carbon-free electricity generation to come.”