Halton Lune Hydro The biggest community hydro in England
The fish pass was brought back into operation on 23rd January after removing an enormous amount of stone, and we have managed, with welcome assistance from the turbine maker Hydrohrom, to start producing green electricity on Wednesday 4th February, just two months after the floods.
Output is about 12% down owing to stones still blocking inlet and outlet screens at the lower levels and the plan agreed with insurers, is to run in this manner until the usual low river levels June/July, when we shall drain to remove the remaining stone, alongside undertaking routine maintenance.
The interim period will be used for restoration of walkways and safety handrails in the fish pass area, re-installing fish counting equipment, under water cameras and elver pass.
Overall, we are pleased with the way that the turbine building and retaining walls stood up to around 1,750 tons of water going by a second, and we will fine tune a few areas to cater for the next very high flow in 50? or 200? years.
