Families are invited to join ESB this weekend at Turlough Hill (Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th) as we hold an open weekend to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ireland’s only pumped Hydro-electric storage system. Free guided tours will be available from 10am to 3.30pm on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of August and no booking is required.
The special open weekend will see the working site transformed into a hub of family fun with free magic shows and face painters. On Sunday East Coast FM will be broadcasting live from the site and Peppa Pig, SpongeBob and Madagascar’s Alex are sure to keep the kids entertained with guest appearances. Two local charities, the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team and the Glen of Imaal Rescue Team will also be in attendance.
ESB is hoping to recreate the success of the first of our two open weekends at Turlough Hill, which was held last month and attracted over 2.5k visitors. Tour attendees have described the walk through the cavern as ‘something from a James Bond movie’, while others have marvelled at the process behind the generation of electricity in an environmentally conscious manner.
Owned and operated by ESB, the station can generate up to 292 megawatts of electricity at times of peak demand and can go from standstill to full capacity in 70 seconds responding almost instantaneously to the country’s electricity needs.
Speaking about the tours, Dave Sexton, Station Manager said; “Turlough Hill plays a significant role in the social and economic history of Ireland and remains hugely important in terms of both environmental engineering and energy supply. ESB recognizes the 40th anniversary as a very fitting time to open the station to tours so that the public can see this amazing facility for themselves."
“Set in the picturesque Wicklow Mountains near Glendalough, construction began in 1968 and ended six years later. The main station is buried out of sight inside the mountain. Tour attendees will be impressed by the massive underground chamber constructed inside the granite mountain which houses the station control room which in 2004 became the Hydro Control Centre for ESB and operates all of the 10 hydro generation stations across the country,” Dave added.
Turlough Hill has been open for guided tours Tuesday to Friday for the past two months and over 5k visitors have been on an enlightening journey through Turlough Hill’s exhibition centre and then walked through the 1.5km tunnel to view the generating plant and Hydro Control Centre, from where all of the country’s 10 hydro stations are controlled, housed in a cavern deep in the Wicklow mountains.
Tours are available through to September from Tuesday to Friday between 10am and 3.30pm. Bookings can be made online at http://www.esb.ie/turloughhill
ENDS