November goes from strength to strength

Well the rain keeps falling and Archie keeps turning - November is now the highest month in kWh this year and already equals the sum of May, June, July, August and September combined.

All this and still nine days to go in the month - if I was a betting man (and I'm not) I would say that by the end of the month Archie will have beaten all previous production records.

This is primarily down to lots of rain and to the extraordinary amount of work done by volunteers in clearing the intake over the past few weeks.

A great picture of the weir with Torrs Hydro blending beautifully into the landscape.

This week the battle with leaves and dead wood at the intake continues and to date it looks like we are on top.

Since Archie was turned back on overnight on 1 November it has been running continuously and it looks like by the end of November we will have one of our highest production months since the scheme started (it may yet be the highest, but we don't want to tempt fate)

Three months in one

November continues to bring the rains as promised and with the rains come higher river levels and ultimately more electricity.

We have already produced more electricity in the first eleven days of November than we did in the whole of August, September and October combined.

Long may it continue !

What a difference a week makes !

Well seven days on since we have been able to start running overnight again and all is going well.

Archie has been running 24x7 for the last week running consistently at 40+kWh with a high of 53kWh.

The daily trips into the river continue (sometimes twice daily) and you will notice some works going on down at the screw over the coming weeks to strengthen the sluice gate as the original design is not strong enough.

Good new too from the work Torrs Hydro have been doing with the Environment Agency - we are now working with some local company's to design and install some information boards down at the Hydro to give more details to our thousands of visitors as part of this work there will be plating along the riverside park (working closely with Steve Lewis who is New Mills Town Councils parks and gardens Manager) - the planting will be of typical riverside species so please don't expect formal rose gardens or rows of geraniums !

This work is at the early stages and further updates will be posted on this blog

Team work

Some great team work over the past week - with the heavy rains came lots of river debris (especially leaves) which build up in a matter of hours to reduce the amount of water that flows through the screw which in turn reduces the amount of electricity we produce.

'Archie' has already producing more electricity in November than it did in the whole of September and October and has several times gone through that 50 kWh barrier - will November end up being a record month - lets wait and see !

Full steam ahead

Not that Archie produces any steam, but after the driest October I can remember (well certainly dryer than last October) we have the first of the winters rain and Archie producing over 40kWh again.

Our main problem at this time of year (and this year we are ready and prepared) is the amazing amount of dead wood, leaves and other vegetation (and pallets) that come down the Sett and Goyt and get trapped by the intake.

On a daily basis until the end of the month volunteers will be getting kitted outed in the ever so fashionable waders (see pic to the left !) and removing debris from the intake.

It is surprising the increase in power you will get from clearing the intake - this morning at 8:00am sharp we cleared the intake and soon the output was up from 25kwH to over 45kWh - well worth the effort !

The other positive news to report is after working closely with High Peak Borough Council and after input from many 'experts' we have had the restrictions lifted on running Archie overnight - the control systems are now configured to automatically shutdown at the power output level that has in the past produced some noise.

We will continue to monitor the improvements we have made and keep you updated on this blog.