Mary Tavy Hydro Station
Well not quite! DEBI members were kindly invited by South West Water to visit the company’s hydro – electricity power station at Mary Tavy on the 7th of May.
The station is discretely sited in the village of Mary Tavy on the west side of Dartmoor close to Tavistock. The 6 turbines, installed between 1932 and 1936 take advantage of a 500ft head of water and a much older drainage system originating from mining activity on the Moor in the 19th century.
SWW have brought this station and its “sister stations” all up to modern standards in the last decade. This includes new fish passes, new intakes to accord with permitted abstraction volumes, upgraded machinery to minimise manpower and energy consumption and modernised premises.
The station boasts being the largest hydro in England in daily use and can, when all six turbines are active, generate 2.6 megawatts. It is fed from the Blackdown reservoir which holds 16m galls and can deliver water to the turbines at the rate of 1 tonne per second. The station is in maximum use throughout the winter but abstraction conditions restrict capacity in the summer months.
Members were given a briefing about SWW’s management of their hydro power stations and the initiative to capitalise on all opportunities in the South West. Viridor, SWW’s parent company produces more electricity than the group uses! This saves 900,000t of Co2 per annum.
Many thanks to Karl Jones who gave the talk and our hosts South West Water who sponsored supper in Peter Tavy!
