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Category: Featured

Low flows for the River Thames at Reading is likely to continue

06/09/202210/09/2022 Anne WheldonLeave a comment
Coutersy of Callum Cromwell, Callum’s Night Photography

Reading Hydro volunteer Wilson Chan is a PhD student at Reading University, carrying out research on the impacts of climate change on UK water resources.  He’s applied his data modelling expertise to predict likely flow in the River Thames over the next few months. In a future blog he’ll update the data and also discuss the likely impact of climate change on the Thames flow. It’s great to have Wilson’s data modelling expertise to help us understand river flow better (even though the outlook is somewhat gloomy for the next few months….).

July 2022 has been confirmed the driest July on record for southern England.  The same month also saw a record-breaking heatwave with temperatures reaching 40°C for the first time. Precursors to the latest drought were a drier than average winter and spring 2022, and the driest winter-spring sequence since the 1970s. The flow of the River Thames at Reading has been declining since spring 2022 and high evaporation from the exceptionally hot and dry summer has exacerbated this decline. This low flow means that Reading Hydro hasn’t been able to generate electricity since June. So what is the outlook for the coming months?

To look at this, I followed the UKCEH Hydrological Outlook “Ensemble Streamflow Prediction” (ESP) technique based on historical climate to look at the likely river flows over the coming year. Details of the model and technique are in this paper, and the results are summarised in the graphs below.

The black line at the left of the upper graph is the actual flow of the Thames at Reading up to August 2022.  Each of the 56 grey lines that continue from August suggest the possible flow for the coming year, modelled by assuming that the rainfall and temperature will be identical to one of the past 56 years. The variation in weather from year to year leads to a large variation in predicted river flow, as anyone who has lived in Reading for a long time would expect. I have highlighted what would happen if we have a repeat of weather from particularly dry years (i.e. 1976, 2003 and 2011).  

It’s useful to see the wide range of plausible flow rates, but how do we know what flow is likely on a given future day?  The approach I used is to calculate the percentage of simulations falling in defined ‘bands’ of flow rate, which gives the probability that, based on past weather, the flow on a particular day next year will lie within this band, as shown in the lower graph.  Here, I’ve chosen thresholds relevant to Reading Hydro: a) 5.24 m/s, the hands-off flow below which we are never allowed to generate, b) 11.44 m/s, the minimum flow required for full generation and c) 37.9 m/s, the average flow of Thames at Reading.

The prediction isn’t very encouraging. It suggests that, without exceptionally high rainfall soon, there is a high likelihood that river flow will be below the level needed for the Reading Hydro turbines to re-start operation, until at least October 2022.

We were featured on BBC South News

07/01/202007/01/2020 Stuart WardLeave a comment

Share offer now live

30/12/201911/01/2020 Stuart WardLeave a comment

The Share offer is now live.

Invest in our share offer and help build a hydro scheme on the Thames in Reading, to generate renewable electricity and help tackle the climate emergency!  Go to our Shares page for details of the scheme and how to invest.

Main Share Offer Coming Soon

05/12/201931/12/2019 Leave a comment

Check out our Teaser Video. Special thanks to Chris from GigshotZ for the amazing drone footage!

The main share offer will be open to the public very soon and you will be able to buy shares in our project until mid-February 2020.

A comprehensive Share Offer document is in the works and will soon be available covering all these details so stay tuned. Make sure to check the box down below the comment section to be notified when updates are posted.

JOIN US AT OUR UPCOMING AGM AND ACTIVITY MEETING AT THAMES LIDO

18/03/201931/12/2019 Erica PurvisLeave a comment

Join us on Tuesday the 26th of March from 6:30pm for a 7pm start, until around 9:30pm, for our Annual General Meeting.

What better place to have the Reading Hydro AGM than right next to Caversham Weir, at the Thames Lido? They’ve kindly donated their meeting room for our evening use.

We’ll be quickly going through our AGM business, review of activities and accounts for the 2017 to 2019 period, give you further updates on what’s been happening more recently, and then have an activity evening where you can all contribute. It’s a chance to hear more about key areas of support and skills we may be looking for in the next stages.

Member, community share investor, volunteer or just curious to get involved, we’d love to see you there!

If possible, please let us know if you’ll be joining so we can keep a track on numbers. You can let us know if you’ll be joining either via our facebook event or dropping us an email.


JOIN US FOR OUR AGM, ACTION EVENING (AND CAKE) – 27th of March, 7:30pm to 10:00pm The Outlook

15/03/201815/03/2018 Erica PurvisLeave a comment

Come along to Reading Hydro’s 2nd AGM , hear updates, get involved and celebrate the progress we’ve all made!

We’ll be sharing where we’re up to with the project and reflect what we’ve done towards our objectives. Then carry on building on this together.

As a member it’s important that you are able to share your views, ideas and help us shape Reading Hydro going forward!

If you are not already a member you are more than welcome to join us as well and if you want can also join there. Just £1 to join our community co-op (we are a Community Benefit Society)

We’ll be downstairs at The Outlook  (which also serves food) and we’ll be bringing some cake (including Vegan).

We’re looking forward to seeing and working with our members, volunteers and supporters to continue moving Reading Hydro forward!

Hydro Choices talk @ Reading Geek Night 7:30pm 12th Sept at the Walkabout

28/08/201727/09/2017 Sally WatermanLeave a comment

This turned out to be a fabulous night with a highly engaged audience asking many interesting questions and joining as members.

Continue reading “Hydro Choices talk @ Reading Geek Night 7:30pm 12th Sept at the Walkabout” →

Members & cake evening @ All of a Twist – 6pm on 7th September

27/08/201728/08/2017 Sally WatermanLeave a comment

Reading Hydro members and friends are all invited to a private guided view of the excellent All of a Twist Exhibition on the evening of 7th September 2017.

There will be cake!

It’ll be a great chance to learn more about the technological options of Reading Hydro, and to discover a wide variety of scientific and historical aspects of the Thames.

Topics include, DNA, rope making, turbines, plant mutations, boating, and tornadoes.

Afterwards we can go for a drink and even a meal at the Bell and Dragon next door.

If you are not already a member of Reading Hydro, simply turn up and we can sign you up.

Exhibition details are on the RG Spaces website.

All of a Twist – Science, Technology and History Exhibition – 2-15 September

27/08/201727/08/2017 Sally WatermanLeave a comment

Reading Hydro project is featuring as one of the diverse exhibits at the All of a Twist Exhibition at the Turbine House near the centre of Reading.

This exciting exhibition is free to visit and is only for the first two weeks of September – so pop down as soon as you can. It runs from 10am to 6pm daily, with a special private view for Reading Hydro members and friends after 6pm on 7th September.

Topics include, DNA, rope making, turbines, plant mutations, boating, and tornadoes.

Exhibition details are on the RG Spaces website.

Join the group

02/05/201707/02/2020 Sally Waterman4 Comments

We welcome new people to get involved in the project.

There’s loads of way you can get involved:

  • showing your support & coming to events
  • providing expertise, time and ideas
  • using the project in education
  • investing in the project

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  • Recent rains have reduced our generation
  • Reading Hydro highlighted at COP27
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  • Reading Hydro & Running Out of Time Relay
  • Low flows for the River Thames at Reading is likely to continue

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