During 1999, Hyder Industrial Ltd. built the UK's largest "run-of river" hydro-electric plant at Beeston Rylands Weir. The plant was commissioned on 4 January 2000 and later sold on to United Utilities[1] in 2001.
Description
Aerial photograph of Beeston Hydro and Beeston Weir
The plant has a design life of twenty years. At the maximum consented flow rate, 60 m3/s of water passes through the pair of turbines. Upstream of the weir and during the salmon migratory period, the plant utilises a bio-acoustic fish-fence—a bubble curtain in which the bubbles contain a sound that the fish do not like.[2] This fish fence steers migrating fish away from the fast-flowing turbine intakes and into the fish ladder, by which the fish can safely negotiate the weir. The power generated supplies enough electricity (1.5 MW[3]–1.66 MW[4]) for two thousand homes, a total of 5.26 GWh annually, it is currently run by Infinis[5]
^Bacon, Ian; Davison, Ian (April 2004). "Low Head Hydro Power in the South-East of England – A Review of the Resource and Associated Technical, Environmental and Socio-Economic Issues"(PDF). pp. 101–103. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2008. An 80m long Bio-Acoustic Fish Fence (BAFF) is installed under the boom to guide juvenile fish towards the fish ladder. The BAFF produces a continuous stream of bubbles into which low frequency sound is inserted creating a localised sound curtain operating between 50 and 500Hz. This was the first time a BAFF had been approved by the EA and installed in the UK. The BAFF is only required to be switched on in spring and early summer. Downstream there is an electrical screen installed inside the exit of each draft tube, designed to repel upstream migrating fish from approaching the turbines and guide them towards the fishpass.
