Foyers Hydro-Electric Station
1896 Built for British Aluminium Co to run its smelter at Foyers. There were initially 4 lines of cells in the smelter (later expanded to 6). Each line was supplied from its own water turbine-generator supplying 8000 amps at 65V. A dam was built to creat Lake Mhor, bringing together 2 existing lakes and flooding the land in between, in order to provide a reliable source of water for the plant.[1]
c1967 The plant was acquired by North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board when the smelter closed.
1968 A 5 MW turbine was installed to replace the original turbines, continuing the generation of hydro-electric power.
1974 A pumped storage scheme was installed, to make use of surplus electricity generated by Hunterston B Nuclear Power Station, once the latter began operating in 1976. In this scheme, water held in Loch Mhor is used to drive two 150 MW reversible pump-turbines to generate electricity at times of high demand; electricity is used at off-peak times to pump water from Loch Ness back up to Loch Mhor. The nominal capacity of storage is 6.3GWh[2].