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ENVIRONMENT : Ecological Monitoring

All power stations have some environmental impact and our run-of-river hydro schemes are no exception. In order to predict the effects and design schemes to take them into account, we carry out detailed monitoring of ecology, archeology and landscape.

We have set up monitoring programmes at upland sites, covering sensitive plants, insects, birds and fish. River flow and depth information is collected from a large number of sites. The data may be compared with rainfall records from the Met Office. Relationships between river flow and depth are derived. These allow estimation of the potential energy output from the river.

Monitoring continues during the construction of a scheme and for the duration of its operation. The evolution of rivers supporting a hydro scheme may be compared to that of an undisturbed river nearby. This process allows thorough analysis of a project's impact

We believe that our work is sufficiently important to warrant close attention to its environmental impact. We wish to publicise the minimal effects that our projects cause. We demonstrate this by awarding long-term research contracts to nationally-recognised scientific experts. Our findings fill many gaps existing in the basic understanding of our environment.