COWI wins consultancy work for 600-MW pumped hydro scheme in Scotland

Engineering consultancy COWI said Tuesday it has been awarded a contract by UK power producer Drax Group Plc (LON:DRX) related to the 600-MW Cruachan 2 pumped hydro storage project in Scotland.

COWI will collaborate with the Owner’s Engineer, Studio Pietrangeli, to provide consultancy services to support works preceding the front-end engineering design (FEED) of the project, which is an expansion of Drax’s existing 440-MW pumped storage hydro station in Argyll. The contract involves providing technical advice for the geotechnical, jetty/marine structures and tunnelling elements of the Cruachan 2 initiative. The project will be located within a new, hollowed-out cavern to the east of the existing facility. It could be completed by 2030, contributing to the UK goal of 30 GW of energy storage by the end of the decade. Construction is expected to start in 2025 and take six years.

“With the right support from the UK government, Drax is ready to invest around GBP 500 million [USD 631m/EUR 584m] to more than double Cruachan’s generating capacity and support almost 900 jobs across the supply chain during construction,” said Drax's development manager Steve Marshall.

Drax recently secured development consent from the Scottish government for the Cruachan expansion.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.263/EUR 1.169)

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