fbpx
After some heart-stopping moments (well quite a few actually) we managed to open the inlet channel sluice gate and give Archie some life-giving Vaccination—water from the River Dane!

As you can see from the short video clip, Archie quickly responded to his Jab!! and smoothly rotated. With no load connected, our only means of stopping Archie was via the disc brake and this also worked smoothly.

So, the first stage of commissioning successfully achieved. Hopefully, after Archie gets his second Jab next week, we might generate a few test volts and Amps.

(Heart-stopping moments were due to the inlet sluice gate, not opening. After repeated attempts and raising the hydraulic ram pressure, we managed to free it from the accumulation of tenacious silt that had built up since it was installed many months ago—-It now works perfectly responding promptly to open and close demands).

That is all the glory stuff—now the real world, as the team spends a few days on the back braking job of clearing the stones off the farmer’s field, so grass seed can be sown (stones are the result of debris from the construction and access track laying).

Congleton Hydro Team
Dane Valley Community Energy Ltd (FCA Registration 7142)
www.congletonhydro.co.uk