Cruachan Power Station celebrates 50th anniversary

Cruachan Power Station near Oban will celebrate its 50th anniversary today (Thursday 15th October), marking half a century of powering Scotland's breakfasts and tea times from deep inside the mountain of Ben Cruachan.

Her Majesty the Queen presided over the official opening ceremony on 15th October 1965, six years after construction had started.

Widely regarded as an engineering masterpiece, Cruachan was devised by Sir Edward MaCcoll and was built by a workforce of 4000. Over 220,000 cubic metres of rock was blasted and drilled by explosives experts know as Tunnel Tigers, to create a cavern to house the turbines and a network of pipes and tunnels deep inside the mountain of Ben Cruachan.

The concept behind Cruachan is a lot simpler than the construction efforts required to make it a reality. The station stores water in an upper reservoir, ready to release and generate power when demand from homes and businesses is high. When demand is low, Cruachan uses excess electricity from the grid to pump water from Loch Awe back up to the reservoir. It helps to balance supply and demand on the national grid.

Cruachan can produce electricity for the grid in two minutes - or 30 seconds if its turbines are already primed.‎ This flexibility means that National Grid often calls on Cruachan to support peak demand from homes and businesses, typically at breakfast and tea time.

At full operation Cruachan can meet the power demands of more than 200,000 homes. ‎But unlike other power stations, Cruachan can also act as a battery, taking excess electricity from the grid to pump water into its reservoir, ultimately storing this energy.