By Lynda Myer
Considering receipt of tenders for the project’s main construction works, plans for Scotland’s Coire Glas hydro pumped storage scheme have moved closer.
The civil engineering and mechanical and engineering for the SSE Renewables Project, have reached six tenders.
Placed in the Great Glen among Fort William and Inverness, Coire Glas is due to be the first large-scale hydro pumped storage scheme to be constructed in the UK for more than 30 years. The 1500MW scheme will create enough long duration storage capacity to power three million homes for up to 24 hours.
The six bidders of final list are:
- For the civil engineering scope:
- Bechtel Ltd, Acciona Construcción SA and Webuild consortium
- BAM Nuttall Ltd, Eiffage Génie Civil SA and Marti Tunnel AG consortium
- Dragados SA and BeMo Tunnelling UK Ltd consortium
- Strabag UK Ltd
- For the mechanical and electrical plant scope:
- Andritz Hydro GmbH and Voith Hydro GmbH & Co KG partnership
- GE Hydro France
In order to implement the mechanical and electrical scope and two for the civil engineering works, opting for one preferred tenderer is probable.
The Determined date for preferred tenderers in working with the Coire Glas team on a program of ground investigation works is from July this year to autumn 2023, which will allow them to refine their proposed project designs.
While the selection of the preferred civils tenderer, who is going to work with the chosen mechanical and electrical tenderer to construct Coire Glas on a turnkey basis, is planned for autumn 2023, the construction phase of the project is scheduled to start in spring.
In order to construct the 1km-long, 4m-diameter tunnel which will cut into the hillside towards the proposed location of the underground powerhouse, Strabag was chosen to undertake the exploratory works for the hydro scheme in April this year and the works are due to commence this summer.
