Spring Spotlight 2026: New Chapter for Hydropower

Reflections from the New BHA Chair, Written by Mary Drury

I am delighted to return as Chair of the BHA at such a dynamic time for the UK hydropower industry. My sincere thanks go to Alex Reading for his long and dedicated tenure as Chair. Together with Kate and the team, he has guided the BHA on its journey to becoming a highly effective and influential organisation. I am also very pleased that Jamie Needle will continue as Vice Chair. With Kate and the team running the organisation so efficiently, only a steady hand on the tiller is required.

Who am I? For those who do not know me, I am a Fellow of the IMechE and have spent most of the past 30 years working in the hydropower industry. I began my career as a graduate at Gilkes, before moving to GE Hydro as a controls engineer, and later into project management at RWE, where I progressed to Head of Hydro UK. I first joined the BHA Board in 2014, during the FiTs era, and became Chair in 2018.

Five years ago, however, I stepped down from both the Board and the Chair role when RWE offered me an international assignment in the Netherlands as Plant Manager of a 600MW coal plant converting to biomass. Living and working in a different country, in another language and managing a completely different technology was both challenging and rewarding. When I returned in 2024, I had gained a much better understanding of the realities at the other end of the energy transition, but it was clear that my passion remained firmly rooted in hydropower.

I have often been told how lucky I am to work with a technology that takes me to such beautiful places. However, I see this less as luck and more as a deliberate choice. The hills and rivers of hydropower have always felt like the perfect working environment for me. With this in mind, I left RWE at the end of last year to establish my own consultancy, giving me the flexibility to follow my heart and focus my efforts in the hydropower sector. One of those focuses will be my role as BHA Chair.

So, what of the future? On a recent Redefining Energy podcast, an LNG expert was asked for his five-year outlook. He reflected that five years ago, few could have predicted that two major wars would have such a profound impact on the LNG industry, so he said it was impossible to say. I do not have a crystal ball either. However, the direction of travel is clear: around 50% of the UK’s electricity is now sourced from renewables, a tenfold increase over the past 25 years. We must continue to decarbonise, and to do so as quickly as possible. This will require a diverse mix of renewable generation and energy storage technologies. Decarbonisation may not be achieved within five years, but I firmly believe it will happen in the end.

And what of UK hydropower? Having worked in the sector since the 1990s, I have seen successive post-privatisation support mechanisms – from NFFO and SRO to ROCs and FiTs- come and go. These schemes enabled the delivery of more than 1,000 new hydropower projects, alongside numerous refurbishments. Today, we see a promising pipeline of pumped storage projects progressing under the LDES Cap and Floor scheme, and I remain hopeful that support for tidal range will also be secured in time.

Alongside this, the UK’s existing fleet of hydropower schemes continues to require operation, maintenance, refurbishment, and upgrade. To sustain their contribution, and to unlock the country’s remaining untapped hydropower potential, we must ensure that the true value of hydropower is fully recognised within the evolving energy market.

I am committed to playing my part in advancing these priorities and, with the support of the BHA’s staff and membership, to collectively championing the future of hydropower in the UK.

This article is an excerpt from the BHA’s Spring Spotlight Magazine 2026. To receive the full copy of the magazine, become a member today!