Letter: Powering up

I FOUND parts of Lesley Riddoch's article to be less than fair to Scottish engineers (Perspective, 4 October). Hydro-electric power in Scotland was first harnessed, in substantial amount in the 19th century by aluminium producers.

There were schemes at Foyers on Loch Ness, at Fort William and Kinlochleven. However, the first hydro-electric scheme in Britain providing a public electricity supply was Cwm Dilly in Wales in 1903, undertaken by Bruce Peebles of Edinburgh.

Early attempts by commercial organisations to set up large hydro schemes in the Highlands were not allowed by parliament until the Thirties, although the Clyde Valley had acquired its own hydro power stations in the Twenties. In any case, until the national grid was set up, there would have been no method of transmitting the bulk of power to distant users.

In the 1940s, the creation of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board did indeed change the way things were done.

Large-scale hydro, with linking power lines, enabled the small inefficient coal-fired units to be closed and cheap hydropower made available to the rest of the UK, as well as providing power for the first time to the very widespread populations in the smaller Highland communities as well as the main towns. Hydro-power became less attractive in the Seventies. However, an increasing number of projects have been completed more recently.

BILL HULME

Parsons Peebles Generation

Rosyth, Dunfermline