Kielder Water is a large man-made reservoir in
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
in
North East England
North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County DurhamNorthumberland, , Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. ...
. It is the largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom by capacity of water and it is surrounded by
Kielder Forest, one of the biggest man-made woodlands in Europe. The scheme was planned in the late 1960s to satisfy an expected rise in demand for water to support a booming UK industrial economy. But the decline of traditional heavy industry, together with more water-efficient industrial processes and better control of water supply leakage, served to undermine the original justification for the reservoir and the government-funded project has been criticised as a
white elephant
A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, ...
.
Kielder Water is owned by
Northumbrian Water, and holds , making it the largest artificial reservoir in the UK by capacity (
Rutland Water is the largest by surface area). It has a shoreline, is from the sea, and has a maximum depth of 52 metres (170 ft).
Etymology
The name ''Kielder'' was first recorded in 1309 as ''Keldre''.
Originating as a river name,
''Kielder'' may have the same origin as the various rivers named ''Calder'', such as
the one in West Yorkshire.
The name may be derived from the
Brittonic ''caleto-/ā'', with the root sense of "hard" (
Welsh ''caled''),
suffixed with ''-duβr'' meaning "water" (Welsh ''dwr'').
Derivation from the Gaelic ''caol dobhar'' meaning "narrow stream" has also been suggested.
Construction
After the scheme was approved by Parliament in 1974, work to build the reservoir and the dam at the hamlet of Yarrow in the Kielder Valley began in 1975. The reservoir and dam were designed for Northumbrian Water by consulting civil engineers
Babtie, Shaw and Morton
Babtie, Shaw and Morton was a firm of civil engineers based in Glasgow, Scotland, and noted for its work on bridges, dams and reservoirs.
History
It took its name following the 1906 merger of Babtie & Bonn (a partnership founded by John Babtie ...
.
Sir Frederick Gibberd and Partners were responsible for architectural aspects. Earth moving and infrastructure construction was undertaken in a joint venture with
AMEC
Amec Foster Wheeler plc was a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In October 2017, it was acquired by Wood Group.
It was focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, ...
and
Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the company is active ac ...
.
The design meant the loss of numerous farms and a school. About 95 people had been resident in the area prior to its development.
The former
permanent way of the
Border Counties Railway was also taken away through the development of the reservoir.
Work was completed in 1981. Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
officially opened the project the following year. The valley took a further two years to fill with water completely.
Operations
The reservoir's purpose is to provide compensating discharges into the
Kielder Transfer Scheme, where water can be transferred to the
North Tyne,
Wear
Wear is the damaging, gradual removal or deformation of material at solid surfaces. Causes of wear can be mechanical (e.g., erosion) or chemical (e.g., corrosion). The study of wear and related processes is referred to as tribology.
Wear in ...
and the
Tees to support abstractions of water further downstream while maintaining minimum acceptable levels in the rivers in times of drought.
There are two main visitor centres at Kielder Water – Leaplish waterside park and Tower Knowe visitor centre – and other facilities at
Kielder,
Falstone and Stannersburn villages. It is also one of the region's major tourist venues, attracting more than 250,000 visitors a year who come to enjoy the facilities.
Hydroelectric plant
Kielder Water is also the site of England's largest
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
plant. It was opened by Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
on 26 May 1982 and is owned by
Northumbrian Water. In December 2005,
RWE Npower Renewables bought the rights to operate the plant and sell the electricity generated by it, with a contract lasting until 2025. Following the takeover, the turbines were refurbished in 2005–2006, which increased the efficiency of the
electricity generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For electric utility, utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its Electricity delivery, delivery (Electric power transm ...
. Controls were also updated, so that the plant can be operated from
Dolgarrog in Wales.
The plant generates electricity using dual turbines which produce six megawatts of electricity. This comes from a combination of a 5.5 MW
Kaplan turbine, which generates electricity when water release takes place, and a 500 kW
Francis turbine
The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today, and can achieve over 95% efficiency.
The pro ...
that generates constantly from the compensation flow of water from the reservoir into the
North Tyne. This gives the reservoir an average production of 20,000
MWh of electricity per year, a saving of 8,500 tonnes of
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...
per year compared to fossil fuel based methods of generation.
Notes
Citations
References
*
External links
Kielder Water Sailing ClubFishing on Kielder Water
{{authority control
Drinking water reservoirs in England
Reservoirs in Northumberland
Hydroelectric power stations in England
Buildings and structures in Northumberland
Power stations in North East England
River regulation in England
RKielder