WITH the power of a small herd of elephants, Oxford's huge new hydroelectric power plant is finally ready to stampede.

After four years of work, the £3.2m, community-owned Sandford Hydro was officially plugged in to the national grid on Friday.

The power plant's three enormous screws, each weighing more than three African elephants, will soon be generating enough electricity to power 450 homes.

Low Carbon Hub operations director Adriano Figueiredo said yesterday: "It feels great just seeing it finished after such a long process.

"It was two-and-a-half years designing it, one year building and on Friday Scottish and Southern Energy finally signed it off."

Chief executive Barbara Hammond added: "I can't tell you what a weight it is off the shoulders.

"There was actually a moment on Friday when we got the test result and said 'brilliant, we're commissioned'."

Also celebrating this week will be the more than 250 community investors – many of them Oxfordshire residents – who co-own a the plant.

Buying shares at £250 each, they invested more than £1.2m in total, and will now get a small annual dividend as well eventually getting their original investment back.

The other £2m came from a Charity Bank loan.

The only thing missing now is the water.

Because the solid steel screws are so massive, the river will only be able to turn them when it is at its full flow in autumn, winter and spring.

No one knows exactly when the Thames will first turn the screws, but it is expected to be late October or November.

In the meantime, Mr Figueiredo and his team will now be performing the last safety checks and clearing up, deconstructing their temporary access road and re-seeding grassy areas.

The team also hope to have an official opening ceremony at some point for investors, hub members and villagers.

Mr Figueiredo said: "We haven't got a date yet because we were so focused on getting it commissioned.

"Now, after we got it commissioned and it all went so well, we are asking the comms team to organise a big celebration."

But it was such plain sailing in Osney.....

SANDFORD Hydro has had a smoother sail to completion than its sister station in Osney.

That facility’s troubles began in 2013 when neighbours on Osney Island complained about the construction noise.

Residents also moaned about the felling of a 60ft Himalayan Cedar tree and possible impact on house prices.

Construction was hit with delays in early 2014 when flooding in Oxfordshire took Environment Agency officers away from the project, pushing the switch-on back to the following spring.

Even when the £650,000 plant was switched on in May 2015, because of low summer rainfall it did not generate the expected power for months.

The final blow came in 2016 when the team was forced to pay out £35,000 after losing a dispute with construction company Greenford over costs.

However, in the 2016/ 17 financial year, the plant generated a powerful 225.137kWh - 125 per cent of its predicted annual output and enough electricity to run 70 homes for that whole 12 months.

And, this month, Low Carbon Hub was delighted to be able to start paying out the very first dividends to its hundreds of community investors.

See osneylockhydro.co.uk