2010-8.pdf

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AUGUST 2010
Serving the hydro industry for over 60 years
Earthquakes and dam safety
The rise in multi-purpose projects
Restoration scheme
Replacing post-tensioned anchors at Catagunya Dam
I N T E R N A T I O N A L
& DAM CONSTRUCTION
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM
AUGUST 2010
& DAM CONSTRUCTION
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM
Water Power
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I N T E R N A T I O N A L
& DAM CONSTRUCTION
Water Power
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM
CONTENTS
Editor
Carrieann Stocks
Tel: +44 20 8269 7777
[email protected]
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Patrick Reynolds
Suzanne Pritchard
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Elaine Sneath, Tracey Honney
Advertising Sales
Scott Galvin
Tel: +44 20 8269 7820
[email protected]
Deo Dipchan
Tel: +44 20 8269 7825
[email protected]
Tim Price
Tel: +44 20 8269 7822
[email protected]
Classified Advertising
Diane Stanbury
Tel: +44 20 8269 7854
[email protected]
Senior Graphic Designer
Natalie Kyne
Production Controller
Lyn Shaw
Publishing Director
Jon Morton
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MEMBER OF THE AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION
The paper used in this magazine is obtained
from manufacturers who operate within
internationally recognised standards.
The paper is made from Elementary Chlorine
Free (ECF) pulp, which is sourced from
sustainable, properly managed forestation.
IN1ERNA1I0NAL WA1ER P0WER & 0AM 00NS1R001I0N - ISSN 0306-400X Volume 62 Number 08 - AUGUST 2010 3
DAM
ENGINEERING
ModernPowerSystems
COMMUNICATING POWER TECHNOLOGY WORLDWIDE
COVER: Ageing post-tensioned
anchors have been replaced at
Hydro Tasmania’s Catagunya Dam
In Australia. See p24 for details
26
30
16
12
46 PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
48 WORLD MARKETPLACE
R E G U L A R S
4 WORLD NEWS
8 DIARY
F E A T U R E S
COMMENT
10 The resurgence of hydropower
Dr Peter Mason of MWH explains why he thinks
hydropower in now back in fashion
DAM SAFETY
12 Dam safety and earthquakes
We present a position paper on earthquakes and dam
safety prepared by the International Commission on
Large Dams
AUSTRALASIA
16 Wyaralong Dam design and construction
Details on the design of the Wyaralong roller compacted
concrete dam, currently under constriction in south-east
Queensland, Australia
20 The key link in the Waitaki chain
Refurbishment work is well underway on the Benmore
hydropower station on New Zealand’s South Island.
Johan Hendriks from Meridian Energy provides details
on this important project
24 Catagunya Dam restoration
The stability of the Catagunya Dam has been restored
over the past two years using modern, large diameter
and corrosion protected post-tensioned anchors
MULTI-PURPOSE PROJECTS
26 Multiple benefits
A number of multi-purpose projects are being
developed in Ethiopia. Patrick Reynolds details some
of the largest schemes
GATES
28 On-site machining at Markland
A portable milling machine will be used at the
Markland locks and dam in the US
NEW HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS
30 Sudanese development
New hydro plants, both large and small, will have a
role to play in meeting Sudan’s energy demands
33 Watershed analysis
An analysis of conventional and in-stream hydropower
in the Yukon River watershed
4 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
WORLD NEWS
T
HE FIRST REVENUES FROM
the Nam Theun 2 hydropower
project in Laos have started to
fow into the country, with the money
being spent on education, health,
rural roads and electrification and
environmental programs, an annual
joint report to the boards of the World
Bank and the Asian Development
Bank has found.
The report also notes that the
project’s environment protection
and social development program in
Nakai Plateau, Nam Theun and Xe
Bang Fai Downstream Areas and the
NT2 Watershed are overcoming sev-
eral implementation challenges and
making good progress.
With the commencement of com-
mercial operations of the Nam Theun
2 facility in April, Laos received the
first revenues of US$600,000 in
June from the sale of electricity to
Thailand. By late September 2010,
this is expected to go up to around
$US6.5M in additional revenues
from the project to fnance poverty
reduction and development pro-
grams in Laos – the central tenet
of the World Bank’s involvement in
the project. Over the 25-year conces-
sion period, the country will receive
nearly US$2B in revenues from the
project.
“With close to three quarters of
the population of Laos still living
on less than $2 a day, the money
generated by Nam Theun 2 is provid-
ing a signifcant boost to the coun-
try’s economy and helping improve
people’s lives,” said John Roome,
World Bank Director for Sustainable
Development in the East Asia &
Pacifc Region.
The Worl d Bank’ s recentl y
released Economic Monitor for Lao
PDR showed that over 3 percentage
points of the expected 7.8% growth
rate expected in 2010 comes from
Nam Theun 2.
In its Update on progress with
the Nam Theun 2 project, the World
Bank and ADB report that on the
Nakai Plateau – where resettlement
of around 6200 people was com-
pleted in 2008 – villagers greatly
appreciate their new surroundings,
with the majority (over 80%) report-
ing they are now “much better off”.
The report says people’s yearly
incomes have almost doubled,
rising from a baseline of about
US$140 a year in 1998 to about
US$260 a year. It says villagers in
the resettled area are taking advan-
tage of improved education, health
and transportation facilities. The
median value of household assets
increased from $US120 in August
2006 to $480 by May 2009.
Along with the successes how-
ever, a number of challenges remain,
the Update says. Chief among them
is safeguarding the area’s natural
resources for the beneft of resettlers.
The report warns that pressure on nat-
ural resources has been growing as a
result of local population growth and
extraction of timber, mineral and fsh
resources by outside commercial inter-
ests. These issues are receiving the
careful attention of the Government of
Lao PDR, the report says.
Over the past year, the Government
stepped up action to stop mining and
logging in the national protected area
– a conservation area on the Nakai
Plateau, nearly seven times the size
of Singapore – which was set aside
as a requirement for Nam Theun 2’s
approval. But, the report says, close
attention to outside encroachment
will need to continue.
In the downstream area on the
Xe Bang Fai river, the report says
most of the impacts from increased
water fow (such as erosion, chang-
es in water quality and loss of
some riverbank gardens) had been
anticipated well in advance and
mitigation measures put in place. A
downstream program which started
several years ago with strong com-
munity participation was acceler-
ated in 2008 and 2009. This has
resulted in good progress with fund-
ing for villages, compensation for
lost riverbank gardens, and water
sanitation and hygiene programs.
The monitoring program continues
to watch for unanticipated impacts
downstream.
The report says the project has
helped Laos put in place tools for
transparent and accountable manage-
ment of public resources. It has also
helped build the capacity of the govern-
ment to manage large infrastructure
projects and has helped to strengthen
the country’s investment climate.
First Revenues from Nam Theun 2
benefits communities, says report
OPT in new groundbreaking
agreement for Oregon wave project
O
CEAN POWER TECHNOLOGIES,
Inc (OPT) has signed a his-
toric settlement agreement
with 11 federal and state agen-
cies and three non-governmental
stakeholders for its utility-scale
wave power project at Reedsport,
Oregon, representing a major step
towards the granting of the first
ever license issued by the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) for a commercial-scale wave
power project in the US.
The settlement agreement sup-
ports the phased development by OPT
of a 10-PowerBuoy, 1.5MW capacity
wave energy station. Manufacturing
of the frst 150kW PB150 PowerBuoy
is already underway at Oregon Iron
Works under its contract with OPT.
The 10-buoy wave farm is expected
to be connected to the grid after
receipt of the FERC license and addi-
tional funding.
This frst-ever wave energy settle-
ment agreement was reached after
extensive technical, policy, and
legal discussions regarding appro-
priate prevention, mitigation and
enhancement measures, and study
requirements. It covers a broad
array of resource areas including
aquatic resources, water quality,
recreation, public safety, crabbing
and fshing, terrestrial resources,
and cultural resources.
The agreement includes an inno-
vative Adaptive Management Plan
that will be used to identify and
implement environmental studies
that may be required, and to provide
a blueprint for the application of this
new information as the wave power
station develops.
“The Settlement Agreement is a
groundbreaking document that dem-
onstrates the State’s commitment
to partnering with the private sector
and coastal communities to explore
how we can tap into the renewable
resource of ocean waves to power our
communities,” said Oregon Governor,
Ted Kulongoski. “The manufacture of
the first buoy has already created
dozens of green-energy jobs in Oregon
and when the 10-buoy wave power
project is built, a whole new industry
will be created to beneft our coastal
communities.”
Dr. George W. Taylor, Executive
Chairman of OPT, added: “This
agreement shows how the private
sector can work together effectively
with federal, state, municipal and
local groups to attain important
common goals of sustainable devel-
opment. I commend the State of
Oregon, the City of Reedsport, and
all of the stakeholders for support-
ing the use of OPT’s innovative wave
power technology as it transitions to
a fully commercial product.”
Unit 4 online at
Russian plant
R
USHYDRO HAS ANNOUNCED
that the 640MW turbine unit
no 4 has begun operations at
the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelec-
tric project, almost a year after a fatal
accident caused extensive damage to
the plant.
Unit no 4 is the third unit to be con-
nected to the grid, with units 5 and 6
having been launched into operation
earlier this year, giving the project a
current capacity of 1920MW.
Turbine unit no 3 will be launched
at the end of the this year, giving
the project an installed capacity of
2560MW. This will enable the project
to operate during the 2010-2011 fall-
winter period without usage of the
operational spillway.
Restoration work is currently on
schedule and the project is expected
to be fully operational in 2014.
The plant was damaged during an
incident on 17 August 2009, in which
75 people were killed.
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 5
WORLD NEWS
DBP signs emission agreement
for three mini hydro plants
T
HE DEVELOPMENT BANK OF THE
Philippines (DBP) has signed an
emissions reduction purchase
agreement with Tricorona Carbon
Asset Management of Singapore for
the sale of certifed emission reduc-
tion (CER) credits to be generated by
three mini hydro power plants funded
by the Bank.
President & CEO Reynaldo G.
David said the agreement represents
a major step in the Bank’s Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM)
activities and underlines its key role
in the global Climate Change Program
initiative.
The three projects are the Cantingas
plant which is owned and operated by
Romblon Electric Cooperative Inc; the
Hinubasan power plant owned and
operated by the municipality of Loreto,
Dinagat Island; and Sevilla mini-hydro
power plant owned and operated by
Bohol Electric Cooperative (BOHECO)
I, with the municipality of Sevilla,
Bohol as co-owner. The three projects
are expected to reduce emission of
about 111,000 tons of carbon diox-
ide during the frst seven-year credit-
ing period.
The emission reduction pur-
chase agreement was facilitated by
CarbonAided, Ltd. of London, which
DBP tapped in 2008 as fnancial man-
ager and agent in the sale of carbon
credits of the three projects.
The development bank is cur-
rently working on the registration of
the projects with the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
Change CDM Executive Board in
Bonn, Germany.
P
RE- FEASI BI LI TY STUDI ES
carried out for Reservoir Capital
Corporation’s Brodarevo 1 and
Brodarevo 2 hydroelectric plants on
the River Lim in southwest Serbia
have recommend an increase in the
projects planned capacity.
The studies, carried out by
Energoprojekt Hidroinzenjering Co.
Ltd (EHC), recommended a capacity
increase from the original application
case of 48MW to 58.4MW, with a cor-
responding increase in output from
189GWh/yr to 232GWh/yr. The study
has also defned dam sites, provided
recommendations for the design of
the hydroelectric power plants and
calculated preliminary cost estimates
for their construction, as summarized
in the table opposite.
The estimated construction costs
are budgeted into three areas:
EUR46.3M for construction works;
EUR51.2M for equipment purchases;
and EUR42.4M for other investments
related to the hydroelectric power
plant. EUR33.7M of the EUR42.4M
that is anticipated to go into other
investments is related to deviation
of 7.31km of the state road M21, on
the section Prijepolje - Bijelo Polje.
The Company is currently working
with local authorities for the permits
required for the relocation of parts of
the road along the River Lim, acquisi-
tion of surface rights affected by the
project and construction of the hydro-
electric installations.
The Italian and Serbian govern-
ments have signed a bilateral agree-
ment whereby Serbia may export
green energy into Italy and be issued
green certifcates (the cost of which
are paid by consumers not govern-
ment) for each kilowatt hour of
electricity sold. The market price for
electricity in Italy is presently approxi-
mately 5.5 Euro cents per kilowatt
hour (EURcent/kWh) and the green
certifcates 8.5EURcent/kWh, imply-
ing a combined price for renewable
energy of approximately 14EURcent/
kWh. The electricity price and the
green certifcate price fell during the
recent global recession, but these
prices are expected to recover in the
coming years with increased econom-
ic activity. From the Pre-Feasibility
Studies EHC has determined that the
breakeven price of electricity for the
Brodarevo project is 7.65EURcent/
kWh over a 25-year exploitation period
using a discount rate of 8%. Reservoir
continues discussions with various
groups with the intent of securing cer-
tifcation and indicative agreements
for the transmission and sale of elec-
tricity into the Italian market.
The EHC report also determined
that the planned construction of
Brodarevo 1 & 2 would bring a
number of benefts, including posi-
tive environmental, development and
economic effects.
Capacity increases for
Serbian schemes
From the Editor
Dear readers,
At the recent Hydrovision International conference and
exhibition in Charlotte, North Carolina, the major discus-
sion amongst the majority of delegates was the role
that hydro has to play in the renewable energy sector.
At the event’s keynote presentation, delegates were
given information on the immense potential for develop-
ment, with Andrew Munro of the National Hydropower
Association in particular detailing the results from a
study by Navigant Consulting (commissioned by the
NHA) which suggests that the US hydro power industry
could install 60,000MW of new capacity by 2025, creat-
ing up to 700,000 new jobs.
Much of this new potential can be found at existing
dams - with only 3% of the country’s dams currently
producing hydroelectric power, delegates were told. A
session at the show which I found particularly interest-
ing dealt with the subject of building hydro at non-hydro
dams. Here the panellists explored the technical and
regulatory concerns with regards to energy production at
existing assets, and addressed the role of state agencies
in encouraging such development.
A major incentive to encourage such development is
hydro’s ability to work with other renewable energy sec-
tors. There is little doubt that hydro (particularly pumped
storage hydro) is a perfect fit with wind, with pumped
storage plants key players for future grid stability. I
once heard the relationship between wind and hydro
described as being ‘symbiotic’, and this is certainly an
fitting description, with wind benefitting from the opera-
tional benefits of hydro, and hydro in turn benefitting
from the good PR of wind.
But what about the challenges to new hydro develop-
ment? This issue was also addressed at the Hydrovision
conference in the session ‘New Hydro Development’.
Here the panellists - Linda Church Ciocci (NHA), Richard
Taylor (International Hydropower Association), Jacob
Irving (Canadian Hydropower Association) and Alexandra
McCann ( Export-Import Bank of the US) - discussed what
they thought were the biggest risks to development.
Though many were highlighted, some of the major risks
seemed to be regulatory uncertainty (would the project
get a licence?), the country market risk for finance
(export issues), and time (difiiculty it developing the
project withing a competitive time frame). However, the
risk discussed most often was the actual perception of
hydro - both by policymakers and the public. All panel-
lists agreed there was a need for greater communica-
tion of the benefits of hydropower, and a need to let the
policymakers know that hydro can be developed in a
sustainable way. Only then can hydro really start playing
a major role in the renewable energy mix!
Best wishes
Carrieann Stocks
Editor
Email: [email protected]
6 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
WORLD NEWS
Contracts
NORWEGIAN FIRM
Rainpower has won a
NOK140M contract from
Swiss hydro power compa-
ny Offcine Idroelettriche
della Maggia (OFIMA)
for delivery of equipment
to the Robiei power plant.
The company will provide
complete replacement of
the plant’s electromechani-
cal equipment, mainly
consisting of four revers-
ible pump turbines with a
head of 284 to 395m, and
maximum performance of
41MW, and one Francis
turbine with a head of 270
to 390m and maximum
performance of 27MW.
The deliveries are com-
plete with inlet and outlet
valves and oil pressure
units. The total project
will be carried out by a
consortium of Rainpower
and Alstom Switzerland,
with Alstom supplying the
generators/motors and the
inlet valves for the pump
turbines.
SCOTTISH AND
Southern Energy (SSE)
has appointed MWH to
provide engineering and
technical consultancy
services in connection with
delivering the feasibility
and outline design for two
proposed pumped storage
hydropower schemes in
Scotland. MWH services
will include outline design
of dams and intakes, geo-
technical and underground
works, power station, elec-
trical / hydro-mechanical
equipment and substa-
tions, as well as health,
safety, environmental,
cost, and quality manage-
ment services. In addition
to providing hydropower
expertise, MWH will
deliver engineering design
and project management
skills from the UK.
Marine projects share funds
from Scottish Government
F
iVE INNOVATIVE MARINE ENERGY
projects are to share £13M in
support from a Scottish govern-
ment fund that aims to help develop
emerging energy technologies.
The five successful companies
have been awarded funding from
WATERS, a collaboration between
the Scottish government, Scottish
Enterprise and the Highlands and
Islands Enterprise.
They include RWE npower renewa-
bles, which has been awarded £6M
to support construction of the 4MW
Siadar wave power station off the
Western Isles, and Aquamarine Power,
which will receive £3.15M to support
the demonstration of its Oyster 3
project at the European Marine Energy
Centre in Orkney.
The projects will ‘help to put
Scotland on the map as the world’s
leading centre for marine renewable
energy’, says Scotland’s energy min-
ister Jim Mather.
‘Our seas have unrivalled potential
to generate clean, green energy and
bring jobs, investment and know-how
to Scotland,’ said Mather. ‘We have
a quarter of Europe’s potential tidal
energy resource and a tenth of the
wave capacity.’
Around £1.85M of the funds will go to
OpenHydro to support development of
a power conversion and control system
that connects marine energy devices in
tidal arrays. AWS Ocean Energy is to get
£1.39M to support tests in Loch Ness
and the Cromarty Firth of a doughnut-
shaped wave energy converter.
Ocean Flow Energy will build and
deploy its ‘Evopod’, a 35kW foating
tidal energy turbine at Sanda Sound
with £560,000 of funding.
‘Initial costs for marine energy are
high and capital is needed - these
grants will help attract further private
investment,’ added Mather. ‘Our sup-
port will ensure a continuous stream
of ideas and technologies can be
tested, developed and refned at our
world class testing centre on Orkney
and elsewhere around Scotland.’
Mather continued: ‘Scotland is one
of the most attractive markets for
investment in wave and tidal power
anywhere. Working with our enterprise
agencies and other partners to develop
our full potential, we will make Scotland
a global leader in marine energy.’
New turbines for Jocassee PS plant
U
S UTILITY DUKE ENERGY HAS
announced that its Jocassee
pumped storage project will
receive two new turbines for units 1 and
2 in August and September, increasing
the project’s capacity by 50MW.
Following a seven-day trek, the
first turbine will arrive near Salem
on August 9, with the second turbine
expected to arrive at this location in
early September.
The turbines, manufactured by
Voith Hydro, are approximately 23ft in
diameter and weigh nearly 150 tons.
They will be transported via interstate
highways on 20-axle, dual-lane trailers
about 250ft long.
Guy M. Turner, Inc. will manage the
delivery, and the units will travel with
police escort to help manage traffc
along the route. Once near the town of
Salem, the frst turbine will be parked
temporarily until the second arrives.
Then both will make the slow and
winding seven-mile journey to the facil-
ity on a hydraulic platform trailer while
escort personnel walk alongside.
“Essentially, we’re improving the
output of the facility and making it
more efficient with state-of-the-art
design technology,” said Greg Lewis,
technical manager - Hydro Fleet. “This
extends the life of the station and
helps our system respond to peak cus-
tomer demands with a fast, fexible,
clean and effcient energy resource.”
These will be the frst upgrades
to Jocassee units 1 and 2 since
they began commercial operation
in 1973. Replacing the turbines
will enhance hydro generation from
the current maximum capability of
170MW to 195MW each. They will
also increase pumping capacity by
37MW each. Units 3 and 4 were
upgraded in 2006 and 2007. Lake
Jocassee will be operated at least
four feet below full pond during the
upgrades to units 1 and 2, which
are planned for September 2010
through May 2011.
T
HE WORLD BANK HAS APPROVED
a $200M loan to the People’s
Republic of China to support the
Huai River Basin Flood Management
and Drainage Improvement Project.
The loan will fnance construction or
rehabilitation of dikes, food control
works, waterways and other infra-
structure, enhancement of disaster
assessment and support systems.
The Huai River Basin is one of the
seven large river basins in China, and
covers 270,000km
2
in fve provinces
of Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and
Shandong with a total population of
165 million. However, major food and
water-logging disasters occur every
three to fve years, causing huge eco-
nomic losses in the food plains of the
Huai River Basin. Following the disas-
trous 2003 foods which caused direct
economic losses equivalent to $4.5B
and made thousands of people home-
less, the Government of China gave pri-
ority to the development of food control
and drainage infrastructure in the basin
and has carried out a number of major
programs with an aim to upgrade the
food control standards from the cur-
rent once in less than fve to 50 years
to once in 20 to 100 years.
The Huai River Basin Flood
Management and Dr ai nage
Improvement Project will supplement
the Government’s efforts and focus on
relatively medium and small size works
on the lesser tributaries in the poorer
rural areas in the Huai River Basin in
the provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong,
Anhui and Henan to provide the local
population with better and more secure
protection against foods and water log-
ging, increase farmland productivity,
and reduce property losses.
“Rather than focusing on infrastruc-
ture construction only, we will adopt a
new approach for integrated food man-
agement and drainage improvement for
this project. The new approach will focus
on integration of structural and non-struc-
tural measures at both river-basin level
and local level, and involve greater rural
community participation in the design,
construction and management of the
lower-level works,” said Jiang Liping,
World Bank Senior Irrigation Specialist
and task team leader for the project.
Finance approved for flood project
Let IWP&DC’s readers know about your forthcoming conferences and events.
For publication in a future issue, send your diary dates to: Carrieann Stocks, IWP&DC, Global Trade Media Ltd, Progressive House, 2 Maidstone Road,
Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 5HZ, UK. Alternatively, email: [email protected], or fax:+44 208 269 7804
DIARY OF EVENTS
8 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
DIARY
September
12-16 September
21st World Energy Congress
Quebec, Canada
CONTACT: Organsing Committee,
740 Notre-Dame Street West,
8th Floor, Montréal, Québec,
Canada H3C 3X6.
Tel: + 1 (514) 397-1474.
www.wecmontreal2010.ca.
14-15 September
Power Plant and Heavy Lifting
Conference
London, UK
CONTACT: Arena International
Events Group, Brunel House, 55-57
North Wharf Road, Paddington,
London W2 1LA.
[email protected].
www.arena-international.com.
15-17 September
African Hydro Symposium
Arusha, Tanzania
CONTACT: African Hydro
Symposium, PO Box 32774,
Lusaka 10101, Zambia.
Tel: 260 211 371 007.
Email:
[email protected]
www.africanhydrosymposium.org.
19-24 September
IWA World Water Congress &
Exhibition
Montreal, Canada
CONTACT: International Water
Association (IWA), Koningin
Julianaplein 2, NL-2595 AA Den
Haag, The Netherlands.
Tel: +31 703 150 785.
Fax: +31 703 150 799.
Email: [email protected].
www.iwa2010montreal.org.
19-23 September
Dam Safety 2010
Seattle, WA, US
CONTACT: Association of State
Dam Safety Offcials (ASDSO), 450
Old Vine Street, Lexington KY 40507,
US.
Tel: +1 859 257 5140.
Fax: +1 859 323 1958.
Email: [email protected].
www.damsafety.org.
22-23 September
8t h I COLD Euopean Cl ub
Sympos i um: Dam Saf et y -
Sustainability in a Changing
Environment
Innsbruck, Austria
CONTACT: IECS2010 Organizing
Committee, Stremayrgasse 10/II,
A-8010 Graz, Austria.
Fax: +43 316 873 8357.
[email protected].
www.iecs2010.tugraz.at.
23-24 September
Wat e r Manage me nt 2010:
Integrating Renewable Energy
Sources
Stockholm, Sweden
CONTACT: CEATI International,
1010 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite
2500, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3A 2R7.
Fax: +1 514 904 5038.
Email: [email protected].
www.ceati.com/meetings/WM2010.
27-29 September
Hydro 2010
Lisbon, Portugal
CONTACT: Hydropower & Dams,
Aqua~Media International Ltd, PO
Box 285, Wallington, Surrey
SM6 6AN, UK.
Tel: +44 (0)20 8773 7244.
[email protected].
www.hydropower-dams.com.
27 September - 2 October
Small Hydro Resources
Trondheim, Norway
CONTACT: International Centre for
Hydropower (ICH), Klaebuveien 153,
N-7465 Trondheim, Norway.
Tel: +47 73 59 0780.
Email: [email protected].
28-30 September
2nd International Congress on Dam
Maintenance and Rehabilitation
Zaragoza, Spain
CONTACT: Daniel Ariza, TILESA
OPC, Londres, 17 - 28028 Madrid.
Tel: +34 91 361 2600
Fax: +34 91 355 9208
[email protected]
http://www.damrehabilitationcon-
gress2010.com
October
3-7 October
Canadian Dam Association 2010
Annual Conference
Niagara Falls, Canada
CONTACT: CDA, PO Box 2281,
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada,
S6H 7W6.
www.cda.ca/2010conference.
13-14 October
British Hydropower Association
Annual Conference 2010
Glasgow, UK
CONTACT: Ellan Long, British
Hydropower Association, Unit 6B
Manor Farm Business Centre, Gussage
St Michael, Dorset, BH21 5HT UK
Tel: + 44 (0)1258 840934.
Email: [email protected].
www.british-hydro.org.
17-22 October
14th Hydro Power Engineering
Exchange 2010
Snowy Mountains, Australia
CONTACT: Snowy Hydro, Level 37,
AMP Centre, 50 Bridge Street, Sydney,
NSW 2000, Australia.
Email: [email protected].
18-21 October
Rotordynamics and Bearings
Technologies
Cologne, Germany
CONTACT: ARLA Maschinentechnik
GmbH, Hansestr 2, D-51688
Wipperfuerth, Germany.
www.arla.de.
19-21 October
European Future Energy Forum
London, UK
CONTACT: Turret Middle East,
ADNEC House, PO Box 94891, Abu
Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
www.europeanfutureenergyforum.
com
25-29 October
Risk Management in Hydropower
Development
Trondheim, Norway
CONTACT: International Centre
for Hydropower (ICH), Klaebuveien
153, N-7465 Trondheim, Norway.
Tel: +47 73 59 0780.
Email: [email protected].
www.ich.no.
November
2-3 November
Forum on Hydropower 2010
Ontario, Canada
CONTACT: Canadian Hydropower
Association.
Tel: +1 613 751 6655.
Email: [email protected].
www.can-hydropower.org.
2-5 November
Hydro 2010
Rostock-Warnemunde, Germany
CONTACT: DHyG, c/o Sabine
Muller, Schutower Ringstr 4,
D-18069 Rostock, Germany.
Email: [email protected].
16-17 November
Flood Management 2010
London, UK
CONTACT: Flood Management
Conference Registration,
Emap Networks, First Floor,
Greater London House,
Hampstead Road, London,
NW1 7EJ.
Tel: +44 0845 056 8069.
Fax: +44 20 7728 5299.
[email protected].
www.ncefoodmanagement.com
24-26 November
16th International Conference on
Hydropower Plants
Vienna, Austria
CONTACT: Dr. Eduard Doujak,
Institute for Waterpower and
Pumps, Karlsplatz 13/305, Vienna
Austria, A-1040.
[email protected].
www.viennahydro.com.
25-27 November
RENEXPO Austria
Salzburg, Austria
CONTACT: REECO Austria
Gmbh, Josef-Schwer-Gasse 9, A -
5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Let IWP&DC’s readers know about your forthcoming conferences and events.
For publication in a future issue, send your diary dates to: Carrieann Stocks, IWP&DC, Global Trade Media Ltd, Progressive House, 2 Maidstone Road,
Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 5HZ, UK. Alternatively, email: [email protected], or fax:+44 208 269 7804
DIARY OF EVENTS
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 9
DIARY
Tel: +43 (0) 662 8226 - 3.
www.renexpo-austria.at
26-28 November
Workshop on Optimization of
Construction Method for CFRDs
Yichang, China
CONTACT: HydrOu China, No.
41-210 Three Gorges Community,
Zhenping Road, Yichang city, Hubei
443002, China
Tel: +86717 672-1379
Fax: +86717 672-1379
Email: [email protected]
http://www.hydrou.com/index.
php?option=com_content&task=vi
ew&id=166&Itemid=1.
February 2011
15-17 February
6th International Conference on
Dam Engineering
Lisbon, Portugal
CONTACT: Eliane Portela , LNEC,
Concrete Dams Department,
LNEC, Av. Brasil 101, 1700-066,
Lisbon, Portugal.
Tel: (351) 218443361.
Fax: (351) 218443026.
Email: [email protected].
http://dam11.lnec.pt.
April 2011
15-17 February
Energy Effciency and Renewable
Energy Sources for South-East
Europe
Sofa, Bulgaria
CONTACT: Via Expo Ltd, 3
Chehov Square, Plovdiv 4003,
Bulgaria.
Fax: +359 32 945 459.
Email: [email protected].
http://viaexpo.com.
May 2011
16-20 June
2 5 t h Eu r o p e a n Re g i o n a l
Conference of ICID
Groningen, The Netherlands
CONTACT: Bert Toussaint, Chairman
of the Organizing Committee, Ministry
of Transport, Public Works & Water
Management, Rijkswaterstaat Centre
for Corporate Services, PO Box 2232,
NL-3500 GE Utrecht, Netherlands
Tel: +31 62 079 1372
Email: [email protected].
www.nethcid.nl.
29 May - 3 June
79th Annual Meeting of ICOLD
Lucerne, Switzerland
CONTACT: Swiss Committee
on Dams, c/o Stucky Consulting
Engineers.
Email: [email protected]
http://www.swissdams.ch
14-17 June
IHA’s 2011 World Congress
Iguassu Falls, Brazil
CONTACT: I nt e r nat i onal
Hydropower Association , Nine
Sutton Court Road, Sutton, Surrey,
SM1 4SZ, UK.
Tel: +44 20 8652 5290.
Email: [email protected].
Call l 001.330.452.7400 Click l www.tuffboom.com
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10 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
COMMENT
S
O, hydropower is back in fashion
and business is booming, but why?
Well there are two obvious reasons.
Firstly it is fashionably renewable
and secondly it is the oldest tried and tested
form of large-scale renewable energy.
Earliest accounts of water wheels in Roman
and Chinese literature date back about 2000
years. A 4th Century lour mill in Barbegal,
near Arles, in France featured 16 overshot
water wheels. Accounts of using water to
power mills and hammers for crushing ore
abound in mediaeval literature with the 1086
Doomsday book listing almost 6000 water-
mills in England alone. However, mechani-
cal transmission meant that power had to be
used close to the mills.
The development of electrical genera-
tors and transmission lines enabled us to
use water power hundreds of miles from
its source. So it is not surprising that today
almost 20% of the world’s energy currently
comes from hydropower.
The Carter administration in the US cat-
egorised hydropower as solar energy on the
basis that solar evaporation leads to rain and
hence the rivers which feed hydropower.
Indeed research by myself and many others is
showing that variations in rainfall and runoff
often correspond to variations in solar energy
levels. But of course the dennition of hydro-
power is much wider. Mills driven by the tide
also date back to Roman times. A tidal mill
was located at Killoteran in Ireland in the 6th
Century and by the 18th Century there were
76 tide miles in London alone. Wave energy
is also a form of hydropower. Perhaps we
should be looking at the complete mix as
ultimately solar and lunar power.
GivrN vn1rivcvri nn· ·Ucn
n ccci vriicirr, vnn1 vrN1
vicNc·
The 1980s and 1990s saw what can best be
described as some quasi-political mischief
making. Under a banner of environmen-
talism a number of pressure groups sought
inluence by attacking anything from nucle-
ar power and pesticides to GM crops, with
dams in there too. Additionally, the waves
caused by the World Commission of Dams
are still being felt.
The resulting pressure caused funders like
the World Bank to withdraw from fund-
ing dams until they realised that only the
very poorest in the world, who it was their
prime mandate to help, were being affected
by the moratorium. Realising that not all
the World Commission on Dams guidelines
were achievable they looked back at their
internal guidelines for project approval.
Noting these were entirely compatible with
the Commission’s, they simply reverted back
to their own. Organisations such as the IHA
are now also bringing much needed clar-
ity to the debate with their Sustainability
Assessment Protocol.
Recent years have seen all the major
funders return to funding dams and hydro-
power. However, a rear-guard action is still
being fought in Europe with arbitrarily low
limits to what capacity of new hydropower
is seen as acceptable.
The same pressure groups raised the spec-
tre of greenhouse gases and in particular C02
in an attempt to stile fossil fuel use. While
ultimately this is almost certainly a good
idea, the same groups’ attempts to claim
reservoirs are similarly damaging seem to be
ill founded. Submerged land cannot release
more carbon than is already trapped on it. It
follows a natural pattern of release as plants
die and sequestration as they grow. A mature
stable forest is carbon neutral.
To some extent the focus on greenhouse
gases almost certainly helped the prospects of
both hydropower and nuclear power, some-
thing unintended by those who raised the
spectre in the nrst place. In fact the need for
an increased use of pumped storage plants to
offset the natural variation in forms of other
renewable energy such as wind, waves and
solar power have also given a welcome boost
to hydropower.
Many governments are now encouraging
small hydropower developments by promis-
ing to buy subsidised electricity from those
connected to their grids. Many large grids
such as those in America were originally
formed by simply connecting a multitude of
small, home-grown schemes. Many of these
were later abandoned in favour of larger
and cheaper central generating centres. The
latest changes are seeing the benencial re-es-
tablishment of many of those smaller, diverse
installations as well as developing a feeling in
many of increased self-reliance.
But all this has come together at an interest-
ing time. The last few years have seen easy
credit and an expansion of speculative fund-
ing. Some of this has helped hydropower.
We are now moving into a period of austerity
and lower interest rates. But low interest rates
in particular can also help investment into
projects like hydropower which require ini-
tial up-front funding but then a relatively low
annual investment thereafter. The longer the
realistic discount period the more favourable
it is to hydropower. It has always seemed irra-
tional to many in the industry, including me,
that conventional nnancial analyses of projects
pay little regard to benents accruing beyond
about 20 to 30 years, whereas a well main-
tained and refurbished hydropower project
can still be operational after 100 years.
It is also now being realised that hydro-
power cannot always be nnanced solely by
the sale of electricity. Many schemes will have
strategic signincance for the country involved
and, where a dam and reservoir are featured,
there may be supplementary benents such
as; water supply, irrigation, navigation and
lood control. These warrant supplementary
funding and an analysis based on economic
value as well as nnancial return. In that sense
perhaps we are returning to earlier days of
multilateral, or multi-stakeholder, funding
but hopefully without the excesses which
tended to see the largest possible scheme
being built in each case.
If properly managed the future is indeed
rosy for hydropower in all its forms, but it will
need concurrent support from affected parties
and that may in turn need public education by
those involved in the industry.
Dr Peter J Mason can be contacted at
[email protected]

If you would like to submit a comment
for inclusion in International Water
Power & Dam Construction,
please contact the editor,
Carrieann Stocks, via email:
[email protected]
The resurgence of hydropower
Dr Peter Mason, Technical Director of International Dams and Hydropower at global envi-
ronment and water specialists MWH explains why he thinks hydropower is back in favour
IWP& DC
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12 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
DAM SAFETY
U
NTIL now no people have died from the failure or
damage of a large water storage dam due to earthquake.
Earthquakes have always been a signifcant aspect of the
design and safety of dams.
A large storage dam consists of a concrete or fll dam with a height
exceeding 15m, a grout curtain or cut-off to minimise leakage of
water through the dam foundation, a spillway for the safe release
of foods, a bottom outlet for lowering the reservoir in emergencies,
and a water intake structure to take the water from the reservoir for
commercial use. Depending on the use of the reservoir there are other
components such as a power intake, penstock, powerhouse, device
for control of environmental fow, fsh ladder, etc.
During the Richter magnitude 8 Wenchuan earthquake of 12 May
2008, 1803 concrete and embankment dams and reservoirs and 403
hydropower plants were damaged. Likewise, during the 27 February
2010 Maule earthquake in Chile of Richter magnitude 8.8, several
dams were damaged. However, no large dams failed due to either of
these two very large earthquakes.
WHAT EARTHQUAKE ACTION DOES A
DAM HAVE TO WITHSTAND?
In order to prevent the uncontrolled rapid release of water from the
reservoir of a storage dam during a strong earthquake, the dam must
be able to withstand the strong ground shaking from even an extreme
earthquake, which is referred to as the Safety Evaluation Earthquake
(SEE) or the Maximum Credible Earthquake (MCE). Large storage
dams are generally considered safe if they can survive an event with
a return period of 10,000 years, i.e. having a one percent chance
of being exceeded in 100 years. It is very diffcult to predict what
can happen during such a rare event as very few earthquakes of this
size have actually affected dams. Therefore it is important to refer to
the few such observations that are available. The main lessons learnt
from the large Wenchuan and Chile earthquakes will have an impact
on the seismic safety assessment of existing dams and the design of
new dams in the future.
There is a basic difference between the load bearing behaviour of
buildings and bridges on the one side, and dams. Under normal con-
ditions buildings and bridges have to carry mainly vertical loads due
to the dead load of the structures and some secondary live loads. In
the case of dams the main load is the water load, which in the case
of concrete dams with a vertical upstream face acts in the horizontal
direction. In the case of embankment dams the water load acts normal
to the impervious core or the upstream facing. Earthquake damage
of buildings and bridges is mainly due to the horizontal earthquake
component. Concrete and embankment dams are much better suited
to carry horizontal loads than buildings and bridges. Large dams are
required to be able to withstand an earthquake with a return period
of about 10,000 years, whereas buildings and bridges are usually
designed for an earthquake with a return period of 475 years. This
is the typical building code requirement, which means the event has
a 10% chance of being exceeded in 50 years. Depending on the risk
category of buildings and bridges, importance factors are specifed in
earthquake codes, which translate into longer return periods, but they
do not reach those used for large dams.
Moreover, most of the existing buildings and bridges have not been
designed against earthquakes using modern concepts, whereas dams
have been designed to resist against earthquakes since the 1930s.
Although the design criteria and analyses concepts used in the design
of dams built before the 1990s are considered as obsolete today, the
reassessment of the earthquake safety of conservatively designed
dams shows that in general these dams comply with today’s design
and performance criteria and are safe. In many parts of the world the
earthquake safety of existing dams is reassessed based on recommen-
dations and guidelines documented in bulletins of the International
Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD).
SEISMIC HAZARD IS A MULTI-HAZARD
Earthquakes represent multiple hazards with the following features
in the case of a storage dam:
Ground shaking causes vibrations and structural distortions in dams,
appurtenant structures and equipment, and their foundations;
Fault movements in the dam foundation or discontinuities in dam
foundation near major faults can be activated, causing structural
distortions;
IWP&DC presents a position paper of the International Commission on Large Dams
(ICOLD), prepared by the Committee on Seismic Aspects of Dam Design
Dam safety and earthquakes
Left: Maigrauge gravity dam built in 1872 in Switzerland. After a recent rehabili-
tation its service life has been extended by another 50 years. Photo shows the
main elements of a storage dam for power production: spillway, reservoir, con-
crete dam body, power intake and powerhouse (left) ; Below from left to right:
Downstream view of the 106 m high Sefid Rud buttress dam in Iran damaged
by the magnitude 7.5 Manjil earthquake of June 21, 1990. Bottom irriga-
tion outlets were opened after the earthquake to lower the reservoir (left).
Rockfall damage near left abutment (middle) and right abutment (right).
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 13
DAM SAFETY
Fault displacement in the reservoir bottom may cause water waves
in the reservoir or loss of freeboard;
Rockfalls and landslides may cause damage to gates, spillway piers
(cracks), retaining walls (overturning), surface powerhouses (crack-
ing and puncturing and distortions), electro-mechanical equipment,
penstocks, masts of transmission lines, etc.
Mass movements into the reservoir may cause impulse waves in
the reservoir;
Mass movements blocking rivers and forming landslide dams and
lakes whose failure may lead to overtopping of run-of-river power
plants or the inundation of powerhouses with equipment, and
damage downstream;
Ground movements and settlements due to liquefaction, densifca-
tion of soil and rockfll, causing distortions in dams; and
Abutment movements causing sliding of and distortions in the dam.
Effects such as water waves and reservoir oscillations (seiches) are of
lesser importance for the earthquake safety of a dam. Usually the main
hazard, which is addressed in codes and regulations, is the earthquake
ground shaking. It causes stresses, deformations, cracking, sliding,
overturning, etc. However, some of the other hazards, which are nor-
mally not covered by codes and regulations, are also important.
Therefore, in the earthquake design of dams all seismic hazard
aspects must be considered and depend on the local conditions of a
storage dam project.
WHAT COULD HAPPEN IN STRONG EARTHQUAKES?
The experience with the seismic behaviour of large dams is still lim-
ited. Four dams – two concrete, an earth core rockfll and a con-
crete face rockfll dam – with heights exceeding 100m were damaged
during the Wenchuan earthquake. Elsewhere, there are another fve
concrete dams over 100m in height, which were damaged due to
strong ground shaking. In concrete dams the damage was mainly in
the form of cracks but also joints can open up leading to the release of
water from the reservoir. In modern embankment dams the damage is
mainly by deformations and cracks along the crest that can eventually
lead to internal erosion and piping through the dam.
However, we have to be aware that each dam is a prototype located
at a site with special site conditions and hazards. Therefore, based on
the observation of the earthquake behaviour of other dams it is still
very diffcult to make a prediction of the damage that could occur in a
particular dam. At this time we are still in a learning phase as very few
large modern dams have been exposed to strong earthquakes. In the
case of the Wenchuan earthquake, a large number of rockfalls took
place, which caused signifcant damage to dams and appurtenant struc-
tures. Surface powerhouses were particularly vulnerable to rockfalls in
the steep valleys in the epicentral region of the Wenchuan earthquake.
COULD RESERVOIRS BE LOWERED IN CASE OF SUC-
CESSFUL EARTHQUAKE PREDICTIONS?
If earthquakes could be predicted, one could attempt to lower the
reservoir prior to the occurrence of a large earthquake. There are two
problem areas related to this concept. First, despite some 40 years of
research on earthquake prediction, it is still not possible to predict
the time, location and size of a large earthquake reliably. Small earth-
quakes may be predicted but not large ones. The prediction is usually
given in terms of the probability of occurrence, e.g. there is a 50%
probability that a magnitude 7 earthquake occurs in a certain region
within a period of 30 years. Such predictions are basically useless for
warning purposes and for lowering a reservoir.
Even if a large earthquake could be predicted reliably, there would
not be suffcient time to lower large reservoirs. Lowering of a reser-
voir would have to happen by low level outlets (bottom outlets) or
the power waterways if the intake is at low elevation. Unfortunately,
bottom outlets are not available everywhere. Therefore the lowering
of a reservoir by say 50% may take weeks or months, and in some
cases it may not be possible at all.
As a conclusion, earthquake prediction, which is a slowly develop-
ing science, is not a viable option to improve the earthquake safety
of dams. The only real option is to have a dam which can withstand
the strongest earthquake effects to be expected at the dam site. This
is the current practice in dam design.
The greatest hazard of a dam is the water in the reservoir.
Therefore, in the seismic design of dams, we have to ensure the safety
of the dam under full reservoir condition. Although an arch dam may
be more vulnerable to the effect of ground shaking when the reservoir
Above left to right: Different types of damage of embankment dams caused
by the magnitude 7.5 Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat province, India, January
26, 2001. Mainly small dams for irrigation and water supply were damaged.
Right: Damage of reinforced concrete buildings on top of intake towers of the
Zipingpu reservoir, May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
14 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
DAM SAFETY
is empty, this case is not critical for the safety of the people living
downstream of the dam but it is, of course, an important economical
issue for the dam owner if the dam should fail.
CAN EARTHQUAKES BE TRIGGERED BY STORAGE DAMS?
There are a number of cases where earthquakes were triggered by
the reservoir. The main prerequisites for reservoir-triggered seismicity
(RTS) are (i) the presence of an active fault in the reservoir region,
or (ii) existence of faults with high tectonic stresses close to failure.
The flling of the reservoir in a tectonically active region may merely
cause the triggering of an earthquake which in any case would occur
at a later date. The occurrence of RTS has been mainly observed in
reservoirs with a depth exceeding 100m. Six events with Richter mag-
nitudes of more than 5.7 have been observed up to now. The larg-
est magnitude was 6.3. In two cases, concrete dams were damaged,
i.e. Hsinfengkiang buttress dam in China and Koyna gravity dam in
India. Since records did not exist on the local seismicity prior to dam
construction, there are still doubts whether these large earthquakes
have actually been triggered by the reservoirs.
If a large dam has been designed according to the current state-of-
practice, which requires that the dam can safely withstand the ground
motions caused by an extreme earthquake, it can also withstand the
effects of the largest reservoir-triggered earthquake. However, RTS
may still be a problem for the buildings and structures in the vicin-
ity of the dam, because they would generally have a much lower
earthquake resistance than the dam. In the great majority of RTS, the
magnitudes are small and of no structural concern.
The issue of RTS is always discussed in connection with large
dams. RTS was also considered in connection with the Wenchuan
earthquake as the Zipingpu reservoir is located close to the ruptured
segment of the Longmenshan fault. However, there is no conclusive
evidence that the earthquake was triggered by the flling and the
operation of the reservoir.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN CONCERNS WITH RESPECT TO
THE EARTHQUAKE SAFETY OF LARGE STORAGE DAMS?
The main concerns are related to the existing dams, which either have
not been designed against earthquakes – this applies mainly to small
and old dams – and dams built using design criteria and methods of
analyses which are considered as outdated today. Therefore, it is not
clear if these dams satisfy today’s seismic safety criteria. There is a
need that the seismic safety of existing dams be checked and modern
methods of seismic hazard assessment be used such as the guidelines
given in ICOLD Bulletin 120. This will result in a dam which will per-
form well during a strong earthquake. To follow these guidelines is
more important than to perform any sophisticated dynamic analysis,
which is only a tool to help understand how a dam will perform.
THE ROLE OF ICOLD
Hoover Dam in the US built in the 1930s was the frst concrete dam
designed against earthquake where both the inertial effects of the
dam and the hydrodynamic pressure of the reservoir were taken into
account. Embankment dams were designed against earthquakes as
early as in the 1920s in Japan where the seismic action was taken into
account in the stability analyses.
ICOLD has discussed the effects of earthquakes on dams at several
Congresses and Annual Meetings. At the 5th ICOLD Congress in
Paris, France in 1955 the following subject was discussed: ‘Settlement
of earth dams due to compressibility of the dam materials or of the
foundation, effect of earthquakes on the design of dams’.
In June 1968 the ICOLD Committee on Earthquakes was estab-
lished. This committee now exists under the name: Committee on
Seismic Aspects of Dam Design. Thirty-one countries from all conti-
nents are represented in this important committee. In recent years the
following Bulletins have been published by the committee:
Bulletin 62 (1988 revised 2008): Inspection of dams following
earthquakes – guidelines;
Bulletin 72 (1989 revised 2010): Selecting seismic parameters for
large dams - guidelines;
Bulletin 112 (1998): Neotectonics and dams - guidelines;
Bulletin 113 (1999): Seismic observation of dams - guidelines;
Bulletin 120 (2001): Design features of dams to effectively resist
seismic ground motion - guidelines;
Bulletin 123 (2002): Earthquake design and evaluation of structures
appurtenant to dams - guidelines; and
Bulletin 137 (2010): Reservoirs and seismicity – state of knowledge.
CONCLUSIONS
The technology is available for building dams and appurtenant struc-
tures that can safely resist the effects of strong ground shaking.
Storage dams that have been designed properly to resist static loads
prove to also have signifcant inherent resistance to earthquake action.
Many small storage dams have suffered damage during strong earth-
quakes. However, no large dams have failed due to earthquake shaking.
Earthquakes create multiple hazards at a dam that all need to be
accounted for. There are still uncertainties about the behaviour of
dams under very strong ground shaking, and every effort should be
made to collect, analyze and interpret feld observations of dam per-
formance during earthquakes.
For further information, contact: Martin Wieland,
Chairman, ICOLD Committee on Seismic Aspects of
Dam Design, Poyry Energy Ltd., Hardturmstrasse 161,
CH-8037 Zurich, Switzerland. [email protected]
IWP& DC
Above left: Damage of the Shapei powerhouse caused by rockfall during the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake; Above right: Sheared off pier of Futan weir
at the Minjiang river due to the impact of large rocks, May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
instrumentation, data acquisition and
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16 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
AUSTRALASIA
W
YARALONG dam site is located in south-east
Queensland, Australia, near the township of
Beaudesert. The project is part of the south-east
Queensland water grid, providing water supply for
this region of Australia. When completed, the dam will have the
capacity to store approximately 103,000 ML of water.
The Wyaralong Dam Project is being delivered as an Alliance, where
the Client, Designer and Contractor work together in a contractual
arrangement which shares the risks and the rewards associated with deliv-
ering the project. Following the completion of the preliminary design,
a value engineering process occurred during the months of February
and March 2009 as part of the bidding process chosen by the client,
Queensland Water Infrastructure Pty Ltd, to select their Alliance partner.
The selected Alliance partners consisted of Macmahon, Wagners, ASI
Constructors, Hydro Tasmania Consulting, SMEC and Paul C. Rizzo
Associates – which combined with Queensland Water Infrastructure
to form the Wyaralong Dam Alliance. The design consultancy services
are being provided by Hydro Tasmania Consulting, SMEC and Paul C.
Rizzo Associates, while construction is being undertaken by the contract-
ing partners Macmahon, Wagners and ASI Contractors.
Detailed design of the roller compacted concrete gravity dam com-
menced in May 2009, with initial early works construction starting
on site in October 2009 in parallel with the design. Construction
is planned to be completed during early 2011. This paper provides
some of the details of the dam, along with some reasons behind the
fnal design adopted at Wyaralong.
DAM - GENERAL
Wyaralong Dam is a 47m high (above lowest foundation level), 490m
long, roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam, with a centrally located
ungated primary spillway and a secondary spillway on the left abut-
ment. The total volume of RCC will be approximately 190,000m
3
.
The general arrangement is shown in Figure 1.
The dam has a wet intake tower attached to the upstream face of the
dam, located on the right abutment. This intake tower allows water
to be drawn from various levels within the reservoir. Water is then
discharged back in the river channel through the outlet works at the
base of the dam through two submerged, vertical discharge valves.
The dam is also designed to provide fish passage in both the
upstream and downstream direction. An innovative bi-directional
fsh lift is being incorporated to provide this capability.
An aerial view of construction during June 2010 is shown in fgure
2. In the photo, RCC placement has started in the spillway section.
The upstream side of the dam is on the left side of the photo.
FOUNDATION
The initial geotechnical investigation was carried out in 2006/07 and
in the frst half of 2009. This investigation consisted of boreholes
across the damsite and two dozer trenches were excavated, one on
each abutment of the dam. The dozer trenches involved removing soil
and overburden and mapping the top of the rock surface. After the
initial investigation was complete, 14 additional borings were drilled
and the dozer trenches were extended. The geotechnical investigation
also included water pressure testing, unconfned compressive strength
testing, direct shear testing, and acoustic televiewer surveys.
Geological sections were developed based on the investigations
conducted and rock was classifed based on the degree of weather-
ing on the sections. Weathering classifcations used were distinctly
weathered with seams, distinctly weathered without seams, and
slightly weathered to fresh. Specifc weak layers were also identifed
on these geologic sections. Based on the geologic sections, the design
foundation level for the dam was developed.
The design foundation level was selected to provide a surface that
balanced the amount of time and treatment required to prepare the
foundation for RCC placement with the amount of rock that would
need to be removed and replaced with RCC. The foundation level
was chosen so that rock that was classifed as ‘distinctly weathered
with seams’ was removed from the dam foundation. It was judged
that it would take too much time and treatment to prepare this rock
to provide a competent base for the dam and it would be removed.
Distinctly weathered rock without seams was generally left in place
in the foundation because it provides a competent foundation for the
dam. The dam is generally founded on distinctly weathered sand-
stone in the abutments and on slightly weathered to fresh sandstone
in the primary spillway section. Photos of foundation preparation at
the right and left abutments are shown in fgures 3 and 4.
Through the development of the geological sections, the orienta-
tion and dip of the typical bedding at the site was identifed. The sec-
tions also showed that any weak layers identifed at the site generally
followed bedding. The slope of the foundation at the left abutment
With construction work well underway on the Wyaralong Dam project in Queensland,
Australia, Richard Herweynen, Colleen Stratford and Jared Deible provide details on the
design of the roller compacted concrete gravity structure
Wyaralong Dam design and construction
Secondary spillway apron Primary spillway apron
Secondary spillway Primary spillway Outlet works and fishway
Below: Figure 1 – General arrangement; Right: Figure 2 – Aerial view of
construction (June 2010)
is generally consistent with the bedding dip and dip direction, and the
right abutment forms a stepped profle.
Using the geologic sections, it was possible to look for potential
interpolations of similar weak seams between boreholes in 2D (along
sections) and 3D (between sections). Potential planes of weakness
were identifed between groups of boreholes and surface exposures.
A total of eight surfaces of potential weakness were identifed at the
site, and these surfaces were named surface A-H. Their location rela-
tive to the dam is shown in Figure 5.
Stability analyses were undertaken along each of the surfaces iden-
tifed. Surfaces A and C are located deep below the foundation and
were left in place. During construction it was found that surfaces D,
E, G, and H were identifed at approximately the anticipated loca-
tions in the right abutment and spillway section. These surfaces were
treated in accordance with the plan developed during design. Surface
B was identifed in the left abutment, and the foundation in this area
was initially blasted to the design level and the presence of Surface
B was confrmed. The geometry of Surface B was slightly different
from the geometry used in the design, so based on actual survey,
additional stability analyses were undertaken. Based on this analy-
sis it was determined that Surface B needed to be removed over the
majority of the footprint of the dam. An additional blast was done
to remove the rock above Surface B, fgure 6 is a photo of the surface
after the additional rock removal.
The design also includes a grout curtain to seal potential seep-
age paths in the foundation. The double line grout curtain is being
installed using the GIN method, and grouting is generally being per-
formed from the approved RCC foundation level. In the abutment
sections the grout curtain is located in the footprint of the dam and
is being done in advance of RCC placement. In the primary spillway
section of the dam, grouting is being done from an overbuilt RCC
plinth upstream of the heel of the dam, allowing RCC placement to
proceed independently of grouting.
RIVER DIVERSION AND DEWATERING
Flows in the Teviot Brook are similar to those in many Australian
rivers and streams, where there are periods of low fows, punc-
tuated by high fow events. Taking this food risk into account,
the fnal diversion arrangement consisted of a 6m high cofferdam
which was designed, with reno mattresses, to be overtopped and
had a sheetpile cuttoff down to foundation rock through the more
permeable alluvial materials in the main river channel.
The river has been diverted into a buried steel conduit for the duration
of construction. The diversion pipe consists of a 2.4m diameter steel
pipe, which is concrete encased under the foot print of the dam. The
capacity of the diversion is approximately 25m
3
/sec. In the event the cof-
ferdam is overtopped during the frst year of construction, various design
measures have been adopted to control the fow into the dam excavation
area, minimising the clean up and ensuring rapid dewatering.
In addition, a series of dewatering wells are provided to dewater
the alluvial material and rock in the foundation area, so as to mini-
mise the ground water infow into the 15m deep excavation.
DAM SECTION AND DESIGN
Analyses performed for the dam included static and dynamic stabil-
ity analyses. Stability analyses were performed along RCC lift joints
within the dam, along the RCC/Rock interface, along typical bedding
planes in the foundation, and along specifc defects identifed in the
foundation. A fnite element model was developed to estimate stress-
es in the dam during an earthquake, and seismic deformation analyses
were performed to estimate displacements during an earthquake.
The dam section was governed by stability analysis along bedding
planes and specifc defects in the foundation. Shear strength prop-
erties for the RCC/Rock interface were developed using the Barton
criteria for rough surfaces. Shear strength properties for bedding
planes were developed using a combination of the Barton criteria
and measured roughness values. Shear strength properties for weak
layers in the foundation were developed using direct shear testing. A
section with a crest width of six meters and a downstream slope of
0.8H:1.0V was selected based on the analysis. A typical section for
the primary spillway shown in Figure 7.
Design features at the dam include a 400mm thick layer of conven-
tional concrete facing, a drainage gallery, crest to gallery drains, foun-
dation drains, and reinforced concrete crest sections. Typical monolith
joints in the RCC are located at 30m spacing, with intermediate joints
in the facing concrete at 7.5m spacing. The thermal analysis indicates
the monolith joint spacing can be adjusted, so the actual location of
monolith joints are being adjusted to suit foundation conditions.
SPILLWAY
The spillway at Wyaralong dam is required to pass the probable
maximum food, which has a design infow of around 7680m
3
/sec.
Various spillway options were investigated during the value-man-
agement phase of the project, including combinations of primary,
secondary and tertiary spillways located both within the dam section
and remote from the main wall.
The adopted arrangement comprises a centrally located, un-gated
primary spillway with a smooth downstream face. A 25m wide still-
ing basin is located at the base of the primary spillway. The design
also incorporates a stepped faced secondary spillway on the left abut-
ment of the main wall, which is designed to operate at foods less
frequent than the 1 in 100 AEP event. Flows over the secondary
spillway are directed along the toe of the secondary spillway in a
concrete-lined apron channel to the main stilling basin. For food
events greater than the 1 in 2000 AEP event, the capacity of the sec-
ondary spillway apron channel is exceeded and fows spill out across
the left abutment towards the river channel.
Extensive investigations were undertaken during the design phase
to assess the behaviour of the spillways, with particular attention
to the erosion potential of the left abutment for food events which
exceed the secondary spillway apron channel capacity. Two physical
model studies were conducted, comprising:
1 in 80 scale model of the dam
1 in 30 scale model of the primary spillway, used to assess the
performance of the fshway, outlet works and stilling basin under
low fow events.
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 17
AUSTRALASIA
Above: Figure 3 – Foundation preparation on left abutment;
Right: Figure 4 – Foundation preparation on right abutment
18 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
AUSTRALASIA
The hydraulic models indicated that the spillways and stilling basin
perform as intended up to the PMF event. The 1 in 80 scale model
is shown in Figure 8.
Results from the model studies for fow over the left abutment for
food events greater than the 1 in 2000 AEP were used in an analysis
of the erosion potential of the left abutment. A decision model was
developed to assess the acceptability of the design with regard to ero-
sion potential. The decision model took into consideration scour
potential based on geological and hydraulic characteristics, likelihood
of occurrence, storm duration, and impacts on dam stability if a scour
hole develops at the toe of the dam. The conclusion of this assess-
ment was that erosion was judged to be acceptable and the dam will
remain stable should a deep scour hole develop.
In order to provide an additional level of protection against scour
holes undermining to toe of the dam, a grid of passive anchors were
adopted throughout the reinforced concrete apron and stilling basin
slabs to ‘stitch’ the concrete slab to the rock and provide additional
resistance across rock joints.
An ogee profle was adopted for the crest of the primary spillway
with an elliptical curve on the approach to the crest. The secondary
spillway crest has been designed as a broad-crested profle, however
top forms used in construction of the primary spillway will be reused
on the secondary spillway to provide an elliptical curve approach
to the crest. Smaller step heights and lengths beyond the second-
ary spillway have been adopted to provide a transition into the large
1.8m high steps. This arrangement will ensure that fows over the
secondary spillway do not pull away from the steps, thus providing
improvement in energy dissipation over the steps.
RCC MIX DESIGN & PLACEMENT
The proposed mix design is an 85:85kg (cement:fy ash) mix, using
sandstone aggregate quarried on site. With specialist advice from Dr
Ernie Schrader, this mix was selected as the result of extensive labo-
ratory testing during the design phase of the project. The sandstone
aggregate has delivered improved performance due to its stiffness
properties, despite presenting some initial challenges for the design
team. Early petrographic analyses and tests on the sandstone indi-
cated that it was cemented with clays, potentially of a swelling nature,
providing some concerns with the long-term durability and suitabil-
ity of the aggregate for RCC. Additional petrographic analyses and
numerous durability tests were undertaken on cores of sandstone and
RCC samples, including wet-dry cycles, soak tests in ethylene glycol,
heating and cooling cycles, breakdown tests and abrasion resistance
tests. Results indicated that the RCC mix performs remarkably well,
Above: Figure 5 – Surfaces A – H; Top right: Figure 6 – Surface B after
additional excavation
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 19
AUSTRALASIA
with the exception that erosion testing on the samples suggested that
a more erosion resistant aggregate is required for the faces of the
spillways. Basalt aggregate is being locally imported for use in the
conventional concrete facing to address this aspect.
The bulk of the RCC is being placed during night shift over the
winter months. Mass gradient and surface gradient thermal analy-
ses indicated that even without forced cooling, the use of sandstone
aggregate will minimise the risk of cracking. The main contributing
factor to the excellent thermal properties of the RCC is its high tensile
strain capacity, which allows the mix to ‘stretch’ more than most con-
cretes without cracking. The mix also has a low modulus of elasticity
(~9GPa). The high tensile strain capacity and the low modulus are a
direct function of the use of sandstone aggregate.
The RCC is being mixed with an Aran pug mill, capable of produc-
ing 400m
3
per hour. The RCC is being delivered to the dam site with
40t articulated trucks to enable it to be delivered directly down the left
abutment foundation. These trucks have ejector bodies with a spreader
box ftted to their rear. The specially designed tail gate sections of the
ejector trucks prevent RCC segregation. The delivery from the pug
mill to the dam is via a concrete lined ramp, following the secondary
spillway apron profle which is at a slope of 1 in 6.
Two trial sections have been constructed for the project, one was
constructed with the 85kg:85kg mix and the second test pad was
constructed with a 75kg:75kg mix. The frst trial section was built to
evaluate the water tightness of lift joints and to serve as a practice and
training area. The second trial section was constructed to evaluate
the RCC mix with less cementitious content.
At the time of writing RCC was being placed in the spillway section
of the dam and progressing upward into the abutments. Figure 9 is
a photo of the placement area.
INTAKE WORKS AND OUTLET WORKS
The outlet works are located on the right side of the primary spillway
and comprises a wet well rectangular intake tower on the upstream face
of the dam with selective withdrawal capacity, a DN 1750mm MSCL
main outlet conduit that passes through the base of the dam, and outlet
works valve pit at the toe of the dam. Two vertical submerged discharge
valves of DN 600mm and DN 1200mm are located in the outlet works
valve pit, and discharge directly into the spillway stilling basin. Butterfy
guard valves are provided upstream of both discharge valves.
The outlet works and fshway are capable of making regulated
releases in accordance with the water resource plan. The largest regu-
lated release fow required is 2.33m
3
/sec. The outlet and fshway
combined has been designed to release 165ML/day with a reservoir
level 2.0m above dead storage level. The outlet capacity has also been
designed to allow the storage to be drawn down from full supply
level to 10% of the storage over a maximum period of 100 days with
median infows.
The 2.8m by 6.6m intake tower will ultimately be attached to
the upstream face of the dam with passive anchor bars, however it
has been designed to be stable as a free-standing tower during the
construction phase to enable its construction to precede the RCC
placement. Detaching the construction of the intake tower from the
RCC placement has allowed increased fexibility in the construction
program.
FISHWAY
Fish passage was required to be provided as part of the design of the
Wyaralong Dam project. The design criteria, options and evalua-
tion of options were developed through a series of workshops, which
included all the relevant stakeholders. Due to the extensive operation
range for both upstream and downstream fsh movement, and due to
the fact that the fsh density is relatively low in the river, the preferred
option adopted was a bi-directional fsh lift. With this design a single
fsh lift is used to provide fsh movement in both the upstream and
downstream directions. This design has signifcant operational fex-
ibility. It is envisaged that the fsh hopper will be in the upstream
attracting position most of the time, attracting fsh for downstream
fsh movement. However, the same attraction fow used for attract-
ing fsh in this upstream position will also be attracting fsh into the
trapped area for moving fsh upstream. Extensive hydraulic model-
ling was undertaken to ensure appropriate attraction fows during all
of the design conditions.
Jared Deible, Senior Project Engineer, Paul C. Rizzo
Associates, Inc., 500 Penn Center Boulevard, Suite 100,
Pittsburgh PA 15235 USA. [email protected]

Richard Herweynen, Principal Dam Consultant,
Hydro Tasmania Consulting, 89 Cambridge Park Drive,
Cambridge, Tasmania 7170.
[email protected]

Colleen Stratford, Dams Consultant, SMEC Australia, 71
Queens Road, Melbourne, VIC 3004.
[email protected]
Conventional
concrete facing
Spillway apron
0.8
1.0
Crest to
gallery drains
Drainage
gallery
Foundation
drains
Rock surface
IWP& DC
Below, from top to bottom: Figure 7 – Spillway section;
Figure 8: Hydraulic model; Figure 9: RCC in spillway section
20 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
AUSTRALASIA
B
ENMORE hydropower station is located in the South
Island of New Zealand and is the sixth out of a chain of
eight power stations on the Waitaki river. At 540MW it is
the second largest hydro station in New Zealand in terms
of installed capacity and annual generation.
The station provides around 2200GWh annually which is 17%
of the energy delivered from Meridian Energy’s power portfolio.
Moreover, the station ensures hydrology fexibility for Aviemore
and Waitaki power stations and provides essential support serv-
ices for the operation of the Transpower owned HVDC link.
Reduction in the station performance would not only decrease
energy output, but also the ability to transfer energy to and from
New Zealand’s North Island.
POWER SUPPLY
The six Francis turbines at Benmore are of an identical hydraulic
design and were commissioned between 1965-6. The six genera-
tors are each rated at 112.5 MVA. They are capable of running at
100MW at 0.9 pf but are limited to 90MW output due to opera-
tional constraints. Currently the total 540MW, 600MVA output of
Benmore is provided to Transpower’s 16kV bus which in turn can
supply either or both of Pole 1 of the HVDC, or the 220kV grid via
Transpower’s two 232MVA transformers (T2 and T5). The bus is
normally run split with three generators on each side to limit the fault
level. This confguration can be seen in Figure 1. Benmore is used to
provide voltage support for Pole 1 of the HVDC link.
SCOPE OF DEVELOPMENT
Several of the essential operating systems at Benmore are nearing the
end of their design/operating life. Signifcant risks and opportunities
were identifed in a series of risk management workshops during
2003. The ensuing investigations and remnant life assessments iden-
tifed components of the generation plant to have either:
Posed a signifcant health and safety risk;
Failed, in respect to no longer operating within the original design
performance parameters;
Reached the end of their supportable economic life, or are due to
within the next few years;
The potential to cause a substantial impact on revenue through
reduction in plant and HVDC availability.
Technical and commercial analysis of various refurbishment options
were completed to derive the optimum scope and timing of work to
maximise benefts from the investment, and ensure an appropriate ft
with Meridian’s long term corporate goals and strategies. This led to
a business case being presented to the board of directors.
The refurbishment of Benmore hydropower station in New Zealand is on track for
completion by January 2011. Johan Hendriks gives more details about the work taking place
The key link in the Waitaki chain
RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES
The following risks and opportunities were identifed as those which
are critical and will be addressed through implementation of the
refurbishment project:
Risk mitigation:
Mitigate the risk of catastrophic equipment failure which has the
potential to cause substantial secondary damage to associated plant
and pose a risk to operations and maintenance staff.
Avoid plant becoming unavailable for long periods while parts are
being procured or where obsolete repairs are affected.
Ensure that the plant remains compliant with legislative and regula-
tory requirements.
Avoid stranding the assets and constraining generation due to a failure
of either pole 1 or the interconnecting or converter transformers.
Avoid constraining the HVDC as a result of multiple unit outages
due to plant and local service failures.
Asset management:
Implement changes that ensure plant performance targets can be
maintained or enhanced through the replacement of ageing assets
and/or reconfguration to provide segregation and diversifcation
of critical systems.
Implement changes that will ensure future compatibility with
Transpower’s proposed HVDC upgrades.
Support the operational life of Benmore for a further 40 years.
Ensure that life cycle costs are minimised through avoiding escalat-
ing maintenance requirements and costs and minimising the revenue
earning impact due to the reduced reliability of ageing assets.
The scope of works for this fve-year refurbishment project is exten-
sive and began in January 2006. The following are the main aspects
of the project.
TURBINE RUNNERS
The turbine runners in each of Benmore’s six turbines are the origi-
nal runners designed and manufactured by Dominion Engineering
(now part of General Electric), Ontario, Canada. To the original
designer’s credit, the turbines have remained in service continuously
from commissioning in 1965-6, except for planned maintenance
activities.
Of the six Benmore machines, three have never been completely
dismantled whilst three have undergone refurbishment in the mid
1990s. However, the runners on all six machines have required cavi-
tation damage repair every three years, which has resulted in distor-
tion of the runner blades.
Effciency testing in 2002 compared the existing runner effciency
to that of the as- commissioned turbines in 1965. From the results it
was evident there had been a signifcant loss in turbine effciency due,
predominantly, to the distortion of the runner blades. An opportu-
nity also existed to further improve station effciency over and above
the original design. This gain was proven following CFD analysis
and model testing. The replacement of the runners will eliminate the
maintenance burden associated with cavitation repairs through using
available advanced design techniques.
The plots in figure 2 show the reduction in turbine efficiency
between 1965 and 2002 together with a shift in the peak effciency
point to higher turbine loads. The shift in peak effciency load has the
effect of decreasing the time when the turbine is operating around its
best effciency. The above comparison was the basis for implementing
a runner and associated turbine components replacement programme
at Benmore.
Subsequent tendering for replacement turbine runners returned a
large range of turbine enhancement options ranging from replacing
the turbine runners only, through to replacing the runners and wicket
gates together with modifying the stay vane profles and turbine fow
passage shape. All of the above options had an increased cost together
with an increase in turbine effciency, but following extensive evalua-
tion of the bid options from various turbine manufacturers, a replace-
ment runner and wicket gate option supplied by Toshiba was deemed
to give the best return to Meridian.
16 KV GENERATOR CIRCUIT BREAKERS
The 16kV circuit breakers provide a critical protection function, but
are nearing the end of their life (normal life expectance of a circuit
breaker is 35 years according to international statistics). Forced out-
ages are becoming more frequent and severe and present a signifcant
risk to plant, personnel and the station availability.
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 21
AUSTRALASIA
VG4
G6
90MW
G5
90MW
G4
90MW
G3
90MW
G2
90MW
G1
90MW
16kV
Bus B
16kV
Bus A
VG3
T5
232MVA
T2
232MVA
VG2 VG1
T6 T4
9 8 7
T3 T1
220kV
Pole 2
500MW
Top: Figure 1 – Existing grid injection configuration at Benmore power station;
Middle: Figure 2 – Existing runner efficiency curves;
Bottom: Figure 3 – Proposed configuration for Benmore
Generation durations
1966 base efficiency curve
2002 base efficiency curve
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
E
f
fi
c
i
e
n
c
y

(
%
)
40 50 60 70
Runner output (MW)
80 90 100
Position of
maximum efficiencies
New
overhead
220kV
circuit
461 (relocated)
465
462 482
483
521
523
Bus A
Transpower 220kV AC switchyard
220kV
220kV
220kV
220kV overhead
circuits
225 MVA 3
winding trfs
16kV new
compact IPB
16kV GCB’s
16kV existing IPB
Generators
Bus B
Bus C
485
522
T46 T44 T5
CB6 CB5 4 3 2 1
T42 T2
G3 G4 G5 G6 G2 G1
BENRP:
Completed
BENFCP (Final configuration project):
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
22 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
AUSTRALASIA
The 16kV circuit breakers, designated CB1 to CB6, connecting the
generators to the main bus are Brown Boveri model DB 20RC 1500/1
single phase air breaker type. They have a 5000A load rating with
a fault rating of 2500MVA. They are originally-installed equipment
and although routine maintenance is conducted they have not been
refurbished or upgraded since commissioning.
Based on analysis of historical forced outage data and discussion
with maintenance staff it was estimated that the circuit breakers
would reach the end of their operational life by 2009. The acqui-
sition of spare parts is diffcult and lengthy – a breaker failure in
February 2003 caused a six-week forced outage which resulted in a
six-fold increase in annual forced outage factors and 5% reduction
in annual availability for that year. The types of faults occurring are
increasingly due to age deterioration of components. Spare parts are
very expensive to obtain and it is diffcult to determine what parts to
hold as the age-related failures are hard to predict.
Efforts have been made to limit the number of circuit breaker
operations in recent years in an attempt to reduce degradation by
encouraging operators to run the units on tail water depressed
mode when not required, rather than stop the units. This is not
an adequate long-term solution as running the units in this mode
is not an effcient way to use water. To maintain adequate service
in the short term, it is critical to address the issue of spare parts
availability as soon as possible.
The circuit breakers will be replaced with ABB HEC-80S SF6 cir-
cuit breakers, 8500A rated continuous current, 80 kA rated short
circuit breaking current.
EXCITATION AND AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE REGULATION
The excitation system suffers from age related faults and requires
an increasing maintenance effort. The equipment is based on 1950s
technology that is no longer supported and future failures will
result in protracted unit outages due to the reduced availability of
spare parts and maintenance expertise. The market driven increas-
ing number of stop/starts will also further escalate the rate of
deterioration.
Maintaining power quality and compliance with Electricity
Governance Rules have become increasingly diffcult and opportu-
nities exist for improving voltage support performance and reduc-
ing synchronising time with modern equipment. The excitation
upgrade will increase the asset life and maintain operational effcien-
cy and availability by reducing the risk of failure of obsolete ageing
equipment.
This project will replace the electromechanical AVR with digital
controlled types and replace the existing motor driven Amplidynes
with controlled bridge rectifers. The exciter feld supply will be from
new unit excitation transformers. The existing generator slip rings
and brush gear will be retained and DC interrupting devices will be
installed. Grid power system stabilisers will also be installed.
The excitation project will:
Extend the life of the excitation and AVR by 25 years.
Reduce the risk of failure of the aging excitation and AVR system.
Improve spares availability.
Reduce the maintenance requirement on the system by 50%.
Not impact the current generator capability with respect to achiev-
ing 100 MW output, or the ability to interface to existing voltage
control signals.
The excitation components are supplied by Basler Electric from
France and installed by Transfeld Services New Zealand. The new
excitation systems are commissioned concurrently with the commis-
sioning of the new turbine runners.
MECHANICAL REFURBISHMENT
In the late 1990s units 2, 3 and 6 underwent a mechanical refurbish-
ment to address the deteriorated state of critical items of plant. The
remaining three units now require refurbishment to maintain target
levels of station availability and minimise lifecycle O&M costs.
This work includes all systems associated with each hydro unit (eg
governors, stator coolers, bearings, brakes, rotors, etc), but excludes the
stators. The stators will have at least ten years remaining life left and
where appropriate will undo selected re-wedgings of the windings.
3.3KV AND 415V LOCAL SERVICE SUPPLIES
The lack of diversity and segregation of the essential supplies
presents a signifcant risk of multiple unit or even whole station
forced outages, particularly as the component parts are reaching
the end of their operational life. There was also a requirement to
maintain the equipment in a live state, which does not align with
safe working practice and presented a health and safety risk that
could result in a fatality.
The existing confguration relies on the interconnecting trans-
formers (T2 and T5) and the HVDC Pole 1 to be available to avoid
constraining the Benmore power station. The existing Pole 1 will be
decommissioned by 2012 and replaced with a static converter pole
supplied from the 220 kV grid. This has forced Meridian to reconfg-
ure the grid injection point.
The existing interconnecting transformers and their associated
16 kV circuit breakers are at the end of their life and have a high
likelihood of failure. So as part of the reconfguration, Meridian is
replacing the interconnecting transformers and adding extra trans-
former capacity.
This project will install three new 225MVA winding transformers
through which the generators G1 to G6 will connect directly to the
220kV grid by means of a strung bus. The proposed confguration
is shown in Figure 3. The two low voltage windings in each trans-
former are loosely coupled to reduce fault levels. This allows for
more economical generator circuit breakers to be used.
All 16 kV connections are made by isolated phase bus duct. This pro-
vides a fully phase segregated confguration, a high reliability and low
maintenance. The bus duct will be supplied by Alfa Standard in Italy.
PROJECT PROGRESS
The project is well underway with four of the six units refurbished.
The excitation and local services upgrade have been completed, one
new 225 MVA transformer installed and supply contracts for isolated
phase bus duct and circuit breakers awarded.
Once complete, Benmore will provide a reliable generation capacity
of 540MW at an increased effciency. It will continue supporting the
HVDC link to New Zealand’s North Island.
The author is Johan Hendriks, Strategic Electrical
Engineer with Meridian Energy Ltd. New Zealand.
Email: [email protected]
This article is based on two papers originally presented
at the EEA conference in New Zealand. The conference
technical papers are available from Electricity Engineers’
Association, New Zealand www.eea.co.nz
IWP& DC
The Waitaki system
Name Commissioned Generation
(GWh/yr)
Output
(MW)
Net head
(m)
Tekapo A 1951 160 25.5 30.5
Tekapo B 1977 833 160 145.7
Ohau A 1979 1140 264 59
Ohau B&C 1984/5 958 212 47.5
Benmore 1965 2215 540 92
Avlemore 1968 942 220 37
Waitaki 1935-54 496 105 21.5
* Facts are the same for each station Ohau B&C
www.neimagazine.com August 2010
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Condition monitoring
Comprehensive VVER dosimetry review page 13
Borssele RPV embrittlement tests support PLEX plan page 20
Analysis
Load factor league tables: 2010 quarter 1 page 28
ASME N-stamp holder breakdown page 36
WWW.MODERNPOWERSYSTEMS.COM AUGUST 2010
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24 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
AUSTRALASIA
C
ATAGUNYA Dam is located on the Derwent River in the
southeast of Tasmania, Australia. It is the third in a cascade
of six dams forming the lower Derwent power develop-
ment. Designed in the late 1950s and completed in 1962,
Catagunya is a 49m high concrete gravity dam which relies on a large
number of 200 ton capacity post-tensioned steel cables to provide the
necessary structural stability against the stored water load. Its design
was considered leading edge, being the highest post-tensioned dam in
the world at the time of its construction, and the designers adopted
a 50-year design life for the anchors. It was estimated that the use of
post tensioning provided a saving in the order of 20% compared with
a conventional gravity dam.
During construction of the dam in the early 1960s, 412 post-tensioned
anchors were installed but the integrity of the original anchors can no
longer be assured. The stability of the dam has been restored over the
past two years using 92 modern, large diameter and corrosion protected,
post-tensioned anchors that can be monitored for deterioration. These
are the most highly stressed anchors applied to a dam at this time.
CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
A number of challenges were addressed during implementation,
including:
Installing more than half the anchors within an operating spillway,
utilising a limited construction window over the summer months.
Providing access for drilling equipment and installation of the
anchors well below the spillway crest on a 54˚ degree slope, 25m
above the riverbed, and demobilising these platforms suffciently to
allow foods to pass during the winter months.
Replacing severed surface reinforcement with 9m long carbon
fbre rods.
In order to gain access to the spillway of Catagunya dam for instal-
lation of the temporary access platform brackets on the spillway and
the carbon fbre tensile reinforcing on the spillway face, a purpose
designed and built travelling gantry was suspended from the spillway
crest. This gantry had fve working deck levels, with four of these
providing access to the full length of the 9m long carbon fbre rods
which were to be installed.
Two 200m long temporary platforms were constructed to access
the spillway. The upper platform was designed to provide access for
the drilling, installation, and stressing equipment, as well as to pro-
vide safe and effcient egress in times of food. The lower platform
was used to give direct access to the anchor hole locations for instal-
lation of anchorage assemblies.
With the unique cross-section of Catagunya dam, tensile steel rein-
forcing is required on the top surface of the downstream face of the
spillway to support the large cantilevers overhanging the spillway. This
steel was to be severed as the large diameter holes for the spillway head-
blocks were cored, so a replacement was required prior to the coring.
Ageing post-tensioned anchors have
been replaced at Hydro Tasmania’s
Catagunya Dam in Australia.
Catagunya Dam restoration
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 25
AUSTRALASIA
A major innovation of the project was the design and installation
of carbon fbre reinforcing into the spillway face to provide tensile
reinforcing for the cantilever section of the dam. Used widely in
the bridge industry as a method to upgrade and restore structures,
epoxy bonded carbon fbre strips are a very cost effective and simple
solution. However, to date, these have not been used for a similar
application in the dams industry.
The 9m long carbon fbre rods were installed in the face of the spill-
way by wall sawing a 9m long, 15mm wide, and 90mm deep slot in
the concrete. Each of the six 8mm diameter rods were installed indi-
vidually, guided into place on a bed of epoxy adhesive injected into
the slot and bonded to the concrete. The overall solution took around
four months to complete, installing over 10km of carbon fbre rod.
A requirement of the design of Catagunya dam was to maintain the
hydraulic performance of the ogee crest spillway. This meant anchors
installed within the spillway were required to be constructed within
the current profle. Coring of 1.2m diameter holes into the slope, 3m
into the dam was undertaken to install the precast reinforced concrete
headblocks to distribute loads into the structure. Abutment anchors
were installed onto a specially designed concrete beam, located above
the level of the parapet walls.
The drilling was undertaken using a 350mm downhole hammer
(DHH) from a Rotomech drilling rig. The longest drill hole was circa
78m through the concrete and into the dam foundation, and in total
6.2km was drilled throughout the project.
The modern post-tensioned anchors were all fabricated on site using
specialist equipment to open and grease the cable, and then install into
a 20mm HDPE sleeve over the free length. The bond length is cleaned
back and left bare, with all 91 lengths of cable twisted into an hour
glass shape to increase the bond with the dolerite rock in the area.
The complete anchor is installed into a part corrugated, part smooth
polyethylene sheath within the anchor hole, and grouted into the hole
using Class G Oilwell and GP cement. Once the grout reaches its
strength, a purpose built 2200 tonne capacity hydraulic jack is used to
load the anchor to over 70% of its minimum breaking load, making
these anchors the highest stressed ground anchors in the world.
LONG TERM MAINTENANCE
The newly installed post tensioned anchors will be monitored fve-
yearly by Hydro Tasmania, with the frst of these checks to be under-
taken between November 2010 and March 2011. To undertake these
tests, the travelling gantry has been modifed to carry all load moni-
toring equipment.
The tests for the frst four anchors installed on the spillway have
already been completed and found the anchors in excellent condi-
tion. The lift off tests performed on these anchors has found only
a very small loss in load over the past year, well within a tolerable
margin and below what has been observed in other anchoring
jobs of this size.
Gantry on the dam face
Catagunya Dam on spill at 370m
3
/sec on 27 Jul 2010
Installing cables on block P, right abutment
IWP& DC
26 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
MULTIPUPOSE PROJECTS
A
MULTIPLICITY of water needs can be served by hydro
and multipurpose projects, and in the near- to medium-
term there is going to be relatively greater demand to
employ them as an adaptation strategy to the anticipated
increase in weather instability, as projected from the effects of cli-
mate change, notes The World Bank Group in its Directions in
Hydropower report, which was published last year.
The World Bank says it ‘is keenly aware of this timely and impor-
tant period for hydropower’ though adds that this particular use of
water resources will be only part of the picture in future. It says that
given the increasing importance of climate change, water security,
and regional cooperation, the bank has consequentially a wider view
that ‘encompasses water infrastructure that serves multiple objectives,
among which energy may be a subsidiary goal’.
The Directions report adds, ‘As part of a fexible, well-planned
water resources infrastructure, hydropower can help countries
manage foods and droughts and improve water resources alloca-
tions across a complex set of users’.
It goes on, ‘Multipurpose hydropower can also support adaptation
to increasingly diffcult hydrology by strengthening a country’s ability
to regulate and store water and so resist food and drought shocks.’
But before facing any climate change impact on hydrology, some
countries are already experiencing great water-stress, prime among them
being Ethiopia, Haiti and Niger, the World Bank said in March, when
releasing an internal review of support given to water-related activities
over 1997-2007. Almost a third of all projects worldwide approved by
the World Bank for funding since 1997 have been water-related.
In every country, from the most water-stressed to those far less
strained – possibly even with an abundance of hydrological resources,
there is far more attention demanded, and being given now, to a
wider range of planning factors, including strategies being developed
around river basins, large and small. One such major planning initia-
tive is underway for the river Nile – the world’s longest – and its many
regional, national and local sub-catchments.
THE NILE & ETHIOPIA
Africa holds immense untapped water resource and hydropower
potential, and yet in the north it also has some of the most water-
stressed regions anywhere. Also in the north is the Nile, one of the
world’s longest rivers, and in the Horn of Africa is Ethiopia which,
despite facing signifcant water-stress, ranks as one of the countries
on the continent with most hydropower potential, notes its Ministry
of Water Resources (MoWR).
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) was established just over a decade
ago and is one of the largest river basin strategies in the world. The
Hydro and multipurpose projects are being sought more due to climate concerns and are
vital in regions of high water stress, such as Ethiopia. Report by Patrick Reynolds
Multiple benefits
The EPB-DSU TBM used on the
Beles II Headrace tunnel
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 27
MUTIPURPOSE PROJECTS
Nile’s extensive catchment area extends over parts of many countries
in northeast Africa. Draining through Egypt to the Mediterranean
Sea, south of Sudan the river is fed by two branches – the White Nile,
which arises in east central Africa, and the Blue Nile, which rises near
Lake Tana in the highlands of Ethiopia.
With so many competing visions and needs for the water resources,
and the cross-border nature of the fows, it is vital to have co-opera-
tion. Like so many river basins elsewhere, the need for effective part-
nerships and co-operation will become increasingly important when
countries and people become presented with weather instability and
other foreseen impacts from predicted climate change.
NBI provides a mechanism for the shared visions, and needs, to
have the Nile basin developed to deliver multiple and widespread
benefts. Having formally launched the Initiative in 1999, the partici-
pating countries held their 18th Council of Ministers meeting in late
June this year, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Council leads the NBI
to help deliver the socio-economic benefts that are commonly, and
separately, sought while helping to promote peace and security in the
region where water is relatively scarce.
The development efforts on the White Nile and Blue Nile are
handled under two units within NBI – the Nile Equatorial Lakes
Subsidiary Action Programme (SAP) and the Eastern Nile Subsidiary
Action Programme (ENSAP), respectively.
Ethiopia has 12 basins – eight river basins, one lakes basin and
three that are, in effect, dry as they have insignifcant fows, if any,
says MoWR. Under NBI, developments in water-stressed Ethiopia fall
within the function and partnership discussions enabled by ENSAP.
There have been a range of water projects developed over many
years, both prior to and since NBI was established. A number of
countries and foreign frms have worked on plans and schemes,
and over the last couple of years the Norwegian Water Resources
and Energy Directorate (NVE) has been measuring sediments and
hydrology to support reservoir development on the Blue Nile, which
is known as Abay in Ethiopia.
Presently, there are a series of hydro, multipurpose and various
other water schemes either in studies, construction or operations, and
these include the multipurpose Mandaya and Beko Abo projects, the
Genale-Dawa basin development, the Gilgel Gibe III addition to the
Gibe cascade scheme, and the Beles Multipurpose (Beles II) project.
MANDAYA & BEKO ABO
The Mandaya and Beko Abo projects are being studied as potential
major developments, some 300km apart, on the Blue Nile in west/
central Ethiopia. While they are being examined together and would
be neighbours in the river basin, and operationally they would infu-
ence each other, the projects would be developed separately.
The study into the projects is being undertaken by a consortium of
companies comprising consultants Norplan/Multiconsult, Norconsult
and Scott Wilson with energy utility Electricte de France (EdF). They
are being supported by local frms Shebelle Consult and Tropics. The
work is to be completed by mid-2012.
In the study, a full technical and economic assessment of the 2GW
Mandaya project is being undertaken. The surface plant is envisaged
to generate 12.100GWh per year. Planning for the 2.1GW Beko
Abo scheme is proceeding with, frst, a techno-economic pre-feasi-
bility study. The Beko Abo underground plant would generate about
12,600GWh annually.
Both projects are anticipated to have large RCC dams, and at the
Mandaya site the structure would impound a reservoir extending
300km upstream to the location of Beko Abo. The reservoir behind
the Beko Abo dam would be about half the length, at approximately
150km long.
Mandaya was examined at the pre-feasibility stage by a joint ven-
ture of Scott Wilson and EdF, and they completed the work almost
three years ago. Around the same time a separate JV of Norplan/
Multiconsult, Norconsult and Lahmeyer fnished reconnaissance-
level studies for Beko Abo.
The RCC dams to be built at Mandaya and Beko Abo have been
estimated will be 200m and 285m high, respectively. At Mandaya,
the structure will have a crest length of approximately 1400m and
a volume of 13Mm
3
, and at Beko Abo the comparable fgures are
880m and 10.5Mm
3
.
Bids are being sought by 31 August to undertake the geotechnical
site investigation works for the studies underway for each project.
The Beko-Abo and Mandaya plans are complementary to the
NVE’s technical support to MoWR for the Blue Nile measure-
ment studies, which are part of the Joint Multipurpose Programme
Identifcation Phase 1 (JMP1 ID) that is to develop an optimum cas-
cade scenario.
GENALE-DAWA
Planning for development of the water resource of the Genale-Dawa
river basin comprises studies for six potential projects ranging from
irrigation (Lower Genale, Welmel), water supply (Negele Yabelo) and
multipurpose hydropower (GD-3) to an integrated watershed man-
agement project (Bonora).
The studies are being advanced by MoWR, and planning has been
underway over much of the last decade. The bulk of funding for the
early studies was provided by the African Development Bank (AfDB),
and the work was mostly carried out by consultant Lahmeyer with
local frm Yeshi-Ber Consult. A separate task, to accelerate planning
for the 357MW GD-3 project, was performed by consultant Ardico-
Rodio through government resources.
In addition, Norwegian consultants Norplan and Norconsult
undertook a feasibility study for the GD-6 multipurpose hydropower
project, which is estimated to have an installed capacity of approxi-
mately 257MW in a surface powerhouse, an 18km long headrace
tunnel and require a 39m high RCC dam. It is expected to generate
1230GWh of electricity annually.
AfDB notes that there have been expressions of interest from poten-
tial investors from Turkey, Japan and China for both the GD-3 and
GD-6 projects and that they are ready for investment. It further notes
that the Ethiopian government, in addition to fast-tracking the hydro
projects, is pushing for rapid development of the Welmel irrigation
and Negele water supply schemes, although it is the Lower Genale
project that is furthest in the requirement for immediate investment.
The Genale-Dawa basin is estimated to have economically exploita-
ble hydropower energy potential of 15.7TWh annually, says MoWR.
GIBE CASCADE, BELES
The largest hydropower project under construction in Ethiopia is
Gilgel Gibe III, the latest – though it won’t be the biggest – addition
to the cascade development on the Omo-Gibe basin, which is one of
the signifcant water resources in the country. There are four Gibe
projects in the cascade and they constitute one of the country’s most
attractive hydro developments, says EEPCo.
Gilgel Gibe III will have a surface plant with an installed capacity
of 1870MW and housing 10 Francis turbines, which are to generate
about 6400GWh of electricity annually from the reservoir that is be
impounded by a RCC dam (231m high, 580m long). The average net
head is 186m, the design fow is 950m
3
/sec and the plant load factor
is 0.46. Extensive studies were undertaken to examine the environ-
mental impact of the scheme and potential mitigation measures.
The dam and powerhouse are being built approximately 155km
downstream of the Gilgel Gibe II plant, which has an installed capac-
ity of 420MW and recently became operational, although there’s a
short-term outage to clear and repair a rockfall blockage in the head-
race tunnel. It is to generate 1635GWh per year.
Gilgel Gibe I was smaller again, but still a large development, at
184MW and generating 722GWh per year.
Planning is continuing for the Gilgel Gibe IV project, which will be
the farthest downstream in the cascade. It is estimated the plant will
have an installed capacity of 2GW and generate 8000GWh annually.
Also under recent development is Beles, which involved signifcant
tunnelling works, like Gilgel Gibe II. The plant capacity is 460MW
and it will tap the waters of Lake Tana, and so be one of the furthest
upstream of hydro plants along the Nile.
IWP& DC
28 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
GATES
T
HIS project details the design and development of a port-
able milling machine and the innovative process that
will be used by the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
to machine, drill and tap the four quoin blocks that are
positioned between the Markland lock walls and doors. By using
the portable milling to machine the quoins in situ, USACE will
signifcantly shorten the machining time and reduce the overall
costs of future repairs, making it possible to replace lock quoins
more effciently. This method of machining represents a paradigm
shift in the way quoins are repaired or replaced, but promises to
be a best practice for changing worn and corroded parts on other
locks on waterways.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The Markland locks and dam are vital to the Ohio River navigation
system in the US. Over the past fve years, it passed an average of 55M
tons of commodities annually. The project is located 5.6km down-
stream of Warsaw, Kentucky. USACE operates and maintains the locks
on this inland waterway out of its Louisville, Kentucky District offce.
Lawrence E Rentz and Karl Williams from Climax Portable Machine Tools report on the design
of the portable milling machine that will be used at the Markland locks and dam in the US
On-site machining at Markland
Climax tests the linear mill on a mock-up of the lock gate
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 29
GATES
The main lock chamber has clear dimensions of 33.53m x 365.76m
and the auxiliary lock 33.53m x 182.88m. Each lock has two doors –
an upstream and downstream pair – which are 19.81m x 2.13m, each
with two quoin blocks. In both cases the doors close against a slightly
concave surface and seal up to prevent excess water from entering the
locks. The pivot point in the door is slightly back and has support arms
on the top and a pintle hemisphere at the bottom.
The Markland locks are more than 50 years old and because its
doors’ quoin blocks are made of carbon steel material, they experi-
ence corrosion. This corrosion causes the door seals to close improp-
erly resulting in a substantial amount of water leakage. As a stop-gap,
USACE has traditionally repaired corroded quoin blocks by putting
epoxy materials on the face of the blocks to build them back up so
they meet the door again. Alternatively if these blocks were to be
replaced, the Army Corps would cut out a very large piece of the
concrete and remove that material, weld in new quoin blocks and
then re-cast around the blocks with concrete, similar to original
construction.
Because the old process could take months, USACE sought a better
way to repair and replace the quoins and issued a request for pro-
posals. Its frst criteria was for the best technical and more effcient
method for machining the carbon steel quoin blocks so that they
could easily be unbolted and replaced with stainless steel ones that
resist corrosion and last longer. Secondly, any new machining method
had to enable USACE machinists to do the work in the shortest
amount of time, eliminating the need for a long term shutdown.
A PARADIGM SHIFT
Out of all the responses, USACE found in Climax’s proposal a para-
digm shift to the current method used to repair quoins. Climax pro-
posed to design and manufacture a portable, custom-made vertical
milling machine that would enable USACE’s machinist’s to machine
the quoins in situ. The machine would be delivered and set up at
the Markland locks, then be attached to the lock wall. It would be
capable of travelling up to 21.34m in height in a single pass, removing
up to 63.5mm of metal material over multiple passes. The machine
would also drill and tap the quoin blocks. Using this method, the
entire job could be completed within a 17-day period.
In situ machining has been used successfully throughout the power
industry and for infrastructure maintenance and repair when critical
pieces of heavy equipment are too large or impractical to disassemble
and ship offsite to a machine shop. Climax engineers were confdent
they could build a custom milling machine precise and powerful enough
to do the work in the time allotted. They provided proof of similar suc-
cessful in-situ machining projects such as line-boring the bushings on
the wicket gates at the Hoover dam, then demonstrated how a similar
machine operated, and was ultimately awarded the job.
At the Markland locks there are two different styles of quoin blocks
– an extended design and an embedded design. The extended blocks
are 203.2mm wide and protrude 76.2mm from the lock wall. The
milling machine will remove metal 63.5mm x 203.2mm. It will also
drill and tap holes as specifed by USACE so the machinist can bolt
the replacement pieces on.
The second style is a 254mm wide embedded block design that
protrudes about 12.7mm from the wall. The milling machine will put
a pocket into this area – cutting a 203.2mm x 63.5mm deep slot in
the existing quoin block. Drilling and tapping will also be done so the
replacement quoin blocks can be bolted into the lock walls.
The portable linear mill was specifcally designed to work on both
embedded and extended quoin blocks.
DESIGNING THE PORTABLE LINEAR MILL
Climax collaborated with USACE throughout the linear mill’s design
process, conducting both a 30% design review and then another when
the machine’s design plans were completed. In addition, alternative
control and alignment systems were discussed and selected. There were
some technical risks associated with being able to move the machine
fat across sections of beds that had interlocking devices. These too
were discussed to ensure that the fnal product ft the project’s needs.
The portable milling machine developed for USACE was modular
for easy transportation and assembly at the job site. It consisted of
six 4m long sections that connect end-to-end. The milling machine
consisted of two separate sleds – a utility sled that houses the electrical
and power components, and a machining sled. These sleds would be
attached to each other. Dual rack and pinion drives using the NEXEN
roller-pinion system were proposed to drive the machine vertically up
and down the entire length of the lock doors. Servo-mechanisms were
used for position control and to eliminate machining errors.
Its heavy duty beds are extremely rigid to provide precision mill-
ing within a +/- 7.6mm tolerance. A robust spindle design provides
the power to utilize 203.2mm diameter cutter heads. Its user-friendly
wireless controls included a wireless antenna that communicates to
the device and a touch screen interface that is used to manage the
entire machine’s programmed functions. The system operates for up
to six hours, and a battery charger was also provided.
TESTING AND TRAINING
Before the portable milling machine could be delivered USACE
required a factory acceptance test during which Climax had to dem-
onstrate all the capabilities of the portable milling machine and its
ability to meet all the functional requirements of the job. An extensive
functional test requirement procedure was conducted by Climax at
its facility. This procedure included a mock-up of the lock wall, test
blocks and surrogate quoins that were machined to demonstrate how
the portable mill would operate in the feld.
During this time, USACE requested some changes to the machine such
as revising the drilling and tapping head from a horizontal to a vertical
orientation for better reach. These changes were easily made and the
milling machine was retested and passed the stringent acceptance test.
At the same time, seven members of USACE’s team were also
trained by Climax on how to set-up and safely operate the machine
since they would be doing the actual work.
COMPLETING THE REPAIR
All the components of the portable milling machine were delivered in
June 2010. The machining is scheduled to take place in 2011.
USACE’s machinists will take about 7-8 days to set-up the machine,
three days to do the actual machining, and 4-5 days to dismantle the
equipment. To install the machine, USACE machinists will set down
the frst bed section on the concrete foor of the lock then drill and
mount it to a concrete wall adjacent to the quoin blocks.
A laser system supplied with the machine will be used to indicate
if and where the machine is out of alignment, and then a series of
individual jacking screws will be used to adjust the mill to within a
tolerance of 0.5mm to ensure that the beds are straight and fat. Once
the frst section of the mill is levelled up, other sections will be added
and aligned until the machine is ready to operate. The operator will
use the wireless controls to drive the milling machine vertically up and
down, enabling them to hold a very tight +/-7.6mm overall machining
tolerance over the entire 619.81m length of the door.
EFFICIENT AND COST-EFFECTIVE
The expected outcome of the repair is that USACE will have the ability
to repair or replace the quoin blocks more effciently and cost-effectively
by just unbolting and replacing the blocks whenever wear and corrosion
necessitate a change-out. In addition, replacing the carbon steel blocks
with stainless steel ones that are more corrosion resistant will greatly
extend the mean time between repairs and replacement.
The authors are Lawrence E Rentz, Vice President of
Engineering/Quality and Karl Williams, Senior Design
Engineer at Climax Portable Machine Tools.
More information can be found at www.cpmt.com
or via email at [email protected]
IWP& DC
30 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
NEW HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS
S
UDAN is blessed with the largest supply of fresh water in
the eastern Africa region. However, with an annual growth
rate of 2.8%, it is also considered to be one of the least
developed countries. At the backbone of the Sudanese econ-
omy is its agricultural sector which determines to a great extent
economic performance.
Seventy percent of the country’s 40M population live in rural areas
with electricity only providing a small percentage of energy needs.
The main energy sources are wood fuel and petroleum. Hydropower
supplies about 50% of electricity.
Like many tropical countries, Sudan has ample water resources
that can be effciently exploited in a manner that is both proftable
and sustainable. Small hydropower offers cost-effective and environ-
mentally friendly energy solutions for Sudan, with the added beneft
of providing sustainable livelihoods in rural areas. The use of hydro
energy resources could play an important role in this context. It rep-
resents an excellent opportunity to offer a higher standard of living to
the local people and will save local and regional resources.
WATER AND POWER RESOURCES
Annual average rainfall in Sudan ranges from about 1mm in the
northern desert to about 1600mm in the equatorial region. The
total annual rainfall is estimated at 1093.2 x 10
9
m
3
. The Ministry
of Irrigation and Water Resources (MIWR) is in charge of water
resources and total water storage available at all dams is 18km
3
.
Sudan’s installed capacity on the grid is 640MW, of which about
520MW is available. The country has a generation and transmis-
sion programme, according to which total capacity will increase to
3383MW in 2016.
Some of the major hydro plants in operation are: Roseires (280MW)
and Sennar (15MW), both on the Blue Nile, Rumela (20MW) and
Khashm El Girba (13MW), on the Atbara River. However, in May
2010, Sudanese President, Omer Al-Bashir, inaugurated a ffth project.
The Merowe hydropower station had swung into operation earlier in
the year after completion of the tenth Francis unit, and the addition of
1250MW of capacity to the national electricity network.
The scheme has been described by Sudanese offcials as a great
accomplishment and good evidence of genuine development in the
country. The generation of 600GWh of electricity annually will boost
different agricultural, industrial and services sectors in the country.
It will also help to enhance living conditions and bolster the develop-
ment process in Sudan, especially in the northern states.
Up to 2000MW of hydropower capacity could also be developed in
The development of hydropower resources in Sudan
will help meet increasing energy demands. New hydro
plants, both large and small, will play their role along
with untapped power potential at existing structures
Sudanese
development
Hydropower for existing dams
Raising Roseires Dam
The Roseires Dam is located on the Blue Nile about 500km southeast of the
Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The 280MW hydroelectric plant supplies nearly half
of Sudan’s power output, and also provides irrigation water for the Gezira Plain.
The Nile rises dramatically in the food season between July and September when
the dam’s fve massive sluice gates are opened, allowing silt to fow down the
Nile and to avoid siltation of the reservoir. Since the dam’s completion in the mid-
1960s the steel lining of the gates has become corroded. To date repair work has
been undertaken at the three of the dam’s fve gates.
As of June 2010 work was progressing rapidly on a project to raise the height
of Roseires dam. The project has been undertaken to increase the dam height
by 10m and storage capacity from 3Bm
3
to 7.3Bm
3
. This is set to double
power capacity at the project. In addition it will also double generation at the
15MW Sennar dam on the Blue Nile, as well as increase the power potential at
the 1250MW Merowe hydro station.
Concrete works at the project for Roseires Dam are reported to be 34% complete
and the daily landfll rate has increased to more than 40,000m
3
. Good project
progress is important as a number of engineering works have to be implemented
before the rainy season starts; as the accompanying increase in humidity will
subsequently stop the work. The project is set for completion by mid 2013.
Hydromatrix solutions
Jebel Aulia dam is southwest of Khartoum. Built in 1937 its original purpose
was for irrigation. However the dam has since been equipped with Hydromatrix
turbines to utilise power potential at the existing structure.
VA Tech Hydro (now Andritz Hydro) was awarded a contract in December
2000 to equip the dam with 40 Hydromatrix modules. Each of these has
two turbine generating units which were installed in front of the existing
discharge openings on the dam. The project was divided into lots. The frst was
commissioned in 2002 with the project becoming fully operational in 2005.
The Jebel Aulia is now a 30.4MW hydropower project which generates 116GWh
annually, producing US$80M of income a year for the Sudanese economy.
Jebel Aulia dam area
Site of Merowe dam
Merowe community
NEW HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS
the future. There is also great potential (about 3000MW) for increas-
ing capacity at existing hydropower sites (See shaded panel).
SMALL HYDRO POTENTIAL
The small hydro potential in Sudan is promising. A number of
prospective areas have been identifed by surveys, and studies are
being carried out to explore mini hydro resources. Mini and micro
hydro can be developed by using waterfalls with heads ranging from
1-100m. In addition, the current fow of the Nile water could be used
to run in-stream turbines; water could then be pumped to riverside
farms. There are more than 200 suitable sites for the use of in-stream
turbines along the Blue Nile and the main Nile. The total potential
of mini hydro can be considered to be 67GWh/yr for the southern
region, with 3785MWh/yr in the Jebel Marra, and 44895MWh/yr in
El Gezira and El Managil canals.
In the past, Sudan was badly affected by rapidly rising fuel costs,
although the country is now in a position to export oil. The country
intends to implement new hydro projects to meet increasing demand
and to avoid power shortages. Small-scale, decentralised hydropower
can provide valuable reserve power and potentially make major con-
tributions to local energy needs, especially the southern region along
the White Nile from Malakal to the border with Uganda.
Article by Abdeen Mustafa Omer, Researcher, Energy
Research Institute (ERI), University Of Nottingham, UK,
Email: [email protected]
Merowe dam
IWP& DC
References
Omer, A.M. (2000). Water and environment in Sudan: the challenges of the
new millennium. NETWAS 7(2): 1-3
Omer, A.M. (2008). Water resources in the Sudan. Water International 32
(5): 894-903.
Omer, A.M. (1995). Water resources in Sudan. NETWAS 2(7).
Noureddine, R.M. (1997). Conservation planning and management of limited
water resources in arid and semi-arid areas. In: Proceedings of the 9th
Session of the Regional Commission on Land and Water Use in the Near
East. Rabat: Morocco.
James, W. (1994). Managing water as economic resources. Overseas
Development Institute (ODI). UK.
Overseas Development Administration (ODA). (1987). Sudan profile of
agricultural potential. Surrey. UK.
Omer, A.M. (2009). Dams, hydropower potential, future prospects and
sustainable water resources management in Sudan, The International Journal
on Hydropower and Dams, p.95-96, Surrey, United Kingdom, December 2009.
New issue of
DAM ENGINEERING
The latest issue of Dam Engineering is on its way to subscribers.
This issue contains the following papers:
º Historical development, typology, inventory and technique of dams and impoundments in
Peru by Cesar Adolfo Alvarado-Ancieta. The author presents an historical evolution of dams
in Peru, details the topography, and gives particular emphasis on trends in the last 140 years.
º Non-linear seismic behaviour of concrete gravity dams and travelling wave effect along the
reservoir bottom by H Mirzabozorg and A Noorzad. The effect of non-uniform excitation of a
reservoir bottom on the non-linear response of concrete gravity dams is considered.
º Explanation of seismic failure possibilities through dynamic and response analysis of earthen dams by Nityananda Nandi,
Sekhar Chandra Dutta and Amit Roychowdhury. The study makes an effort to explain the crest failure of earthen dams
during seismic excitations. Free vibration analysis usinf three dimensional modelling of earthen dams is carried out.
º Governing equations for dam break fows by Pranab K Mohapatra. The results obtained by using different sets of equations
for the mathematical modelling of dam break fows are presented in this study. The performance and computational
effciencies of these models to simulate fow are evaluated, and conclusions are drawn for the selection of governing
equations for numerical modelling of dam break fows.
Dam Engineering is an academic journal, published quarterly by International Water Power & Dam Construction.
It contains refereed papers on subjects related to all areas of dams and hydro power.
At present there is no restriction on the length of submitted papers.
For information on submitting papers, or for more details about subscribing to Dam Engineering, contact: Tracey Honney,
Dam Engineering, Progressive House, Maidstone Road, Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent DA14 5HZ
tel: +44 20 8269 7767 , fax: +44 208 269 7804, email: [email protected]
VOLUME XXI ISSUE 1
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WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 33
NEW HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS
T
HE Yukon River is 3700km long, draining a watershed
with an area of 832,700km (Figure 1). It is the fourth
largest river system in North America, and a signifcant
contributor to the Bering Sea ecosystem. Spanning the
east-west length of the US state of Alaska and much of Canada’s
Yukon Territory, the Yukon River supports the longest inland
run of Pacifc salmon in the world, with over 70 different indig-
enous Tribes and First Nations dependent on the fsh and other
natural resources.
The majority of the river’s length, and over 60% of the water-
shed drainage (508,900km), is in the US state of Alaska, with
the rest (321,800km) in Canada’s Yukon Territory and a small
part of the headwaters located in British Columbia. By compari-
son, the watershed’s total area is more than 25% larger than the
nations of France or Ukraine. With an average fow volume of
6430m/sec at its mouth, the river empties into the Bering Sea at
the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, one of the largest coastal alluvial
plains in the world.
As a bi-national resource, the Yukon River is managed by and
subject to international treaties, e.g., the Pacifc Salmon Treaty
and the Jay Treaty, as well as US and Canadian federal, state,
provincial, territorial, tribal, land claims and municipal laws and
practices. These complementary and at times competing mandates
result in a patchwork of management regimes and potentially con-
ficting priorities. Calls for a watershed-wide approach to resource
management, including for hydro power development, are becom-
ing more common (Indian Law Resource Center, 2003).
HISTORY OF HYDROPOWER IN THE
YUKON RIVER WATERSHED
Historically, the mining and smelting industries have been the
largest factor infuencing hydropower development in the Yukon
River watershed. Many of the early hydropower installations in
the region provided mechanical energy for mining equipment, as
opposed to hydroelectric power generation. Placer gold mines
throughout the Yukon River watershed relied on hydraulic extrac-
tion methods. In the early 20th century, two hydroelectric plants
were developed in the Dawson City area, Twelve Mile and North
Fork, to serve local mining operations. The 1.2MW Twelve Mile
plant operated between 1907 and 1920, on the Twelve Mile
(now Chandinau) River, and the 5.4MW North Fork plant (later
expanded to 8.1MW) operated between 1911 and 1966, on the
Klondike River.
Not long after, some hydropower facilities were developed
in interior Alaska for gold mining operations in the Yukon
River watershed.
Soon after the Fairbanks gold rush of 1902, several hydropower
installations for Tanana Valley gold mines were constructed, oper-
ating seasonally. Early mining operations also harnessed energy
from the Yukon River’s headwaters in northwestern BC. In the
mid-1920s, the Wann River hydroelectric plant was built to power
the nearby Engineer gold mine, near the southern end of the Taku
Arm of Tagish Lake.
Between the 1940s and the 1970s, several large-scale hydro-
electric projects were proposed for the Yukon River watershed,
yet never built. In addition to Rampart – the largest prospect of
all and further discussed later – other large dams were proposed
for the Yukon River in interior Alaska, and four different Upper
Yukon headwater diversions were proposed through the coastal
mountains. Three of the proposed tunnel routes were diversions
to the Taiya River in Alaska, while one was to divert waters to the
Taku River in British Columbia.
As described in “The economics of an Upper Yukon basin
power development scheme” (Schramm, 1968): “The overall
development scheme of all four plans is essentially the same. It
is based on the use of existing lakes, plus, in some cases, addi-
tional storage and diversions of lakes and rivers adjacent to
the primary storage area, the drilling of one or more tunnels
through the coastal mountains and the construction of one or
more power plants in the valleys below. The main differences lie
in the number of additional storage lakes created and the routing
of the main tunnel or tunnels.”
As lake-tap projects, Yukon-Taiya and Yukon-Taku would have
had far less potential environmental impacts than the Rampart or
other large dam proposals for the Yukon River described below.
Therefore, these large-scale proposals to divert water from the
Yukon’s headwaters may be resurrected in the future.
YUKON-TAIYA DIVERSION
R.C. Johnson, an engineer with US Bureau of Reclamation, frst
proposed in 1946 what was initially called the Tagish-Lynn
project. The proposal’s name was soon changed to Yukon-Taiya,
after the Taiya Inlet, in northern Lynn Canal. A joint US-Canada
effort, the Yukon-Taiya project would have consisted of an under-
ground tunnel (ranging between 23km and 27km in length) under-
neath the Chilkoot Pass area, going from Bennett Lake in British
Columbia, to a powerhouse site in the Taiya River Valley near
Skagway, Alaska. The plant would intake water from a series of
connected lakes in the Yukon and British Columbia.
Through channel dredging, six existing lakes in Canada – Marsh,
Tagish, Atlin, Little Atlin, Bennet and Lindeman lakes – would be
merged into one interconnected reservoir of over 1200km
2
in size,
with a surface elevation about 670m above sea level (Bureau of
Brian Yanity and Brian Hirsch present an analysis of conventional and in-stream hydro
power in the Yukon River watershed
Watershed analysis
Figure 1: Map of Yukon River watershed: (courtesy of Yukon River Inter-Tribal
Watershed Council, www.yritwc.org. Map edited by Paula Hansen of WHPacific)
34 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
NEW HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS
Reclamation, 1955).
The minimum diverted fow of the three different Yukon-Taiya
proposals ranged between 79m/sec and 524m/sec, or between
1% and 8% of the total Yukon River average fow volume. The
proposed power plant would have ranged between 320MW and
4000 MW of estimated generation capacity, representing 2.8 to
25 TWh in annual frm energy (Wardle, 1957). As originally pro-
posed, the powerhouse would be located in what is now Klondike
Gold Rush National Park, near the historic Dyea town site.
In the late 1940s, the joint US/Canada Yukon-Taiya Commission
studied the project, but it was halted in 1951 at the request of
the Canadian government. During the 1950s, the Aluminum
Company of America (Alcoa) expressed serious interest in devel-
oping Yukon-Taiya to power a smelter to be built at Dyea, near
Skagway. Alcoa dropped all plans for Yukon-Taiya in 1957, after
the Canadian and BC governments decided against cooperating on
the project. There were several reasons, mostly relating to unre-
solved international waters issues that made the Yukon-Taiya pro-
posal unpopular in Canada.
In particular, the Alcoa aluminium smelter proposed for
Skagway was seen as direct competition to the Alcan smelter
at Kitimat, BC, which was under construction during in the
early 1950s. However, despite the Canadian opposition, busi-
ness interests in Alaska continued to advocate for Yukon-Taiya
for the entire decade of the 1960s. To advance the project, the
Alaska Legislature created the Yukon-Taiya Commission in 1967.
However, its work stopped in 1972 after being unable to gather
meaningful support for the project in either the US or Canada
(Norris, 1996).
YUKON-TAKU DIVERSION
The massive Yukon-Taku scheme would have consisted of three
separate tunnels with a combined length of about 31km. All of the
facilities would be completely located within Canada, and would
have required multiple dams, with far greater artifcial reservoirs
compared to Yukon-Taiya. Yukon-Taku would have had three
powerhouses in different locations, with a total of 3600MW of
total generation capacity, and a frm annual energy output of
31.2 TWh (Wardle, 1957). The minimum fow diverted was to be
793m/sec, representing about 12% of the total Yukon River aver-
age fow volume. However, in addition to the Yukon River water-
shed, some water was to be diverted into the Upper Yukon from
the Alsek River watershed. As part of the Yukon-Taku project, a
large aluminium smelter was proposed for Tulseqah, BC, on the
Taku River.
RAMPART DAM AND OTHER LARGE DAM
PROPOSALS IN ALASKA
The US Army Corps of Engineers first proposed the 5040MW
Rampart Dam project in the early 1950s. The plan was to dam
the Yukon at Rampart Canyon, near the town of Rampart about
160km from Fairbanks, creating a reservoir over 28,000km in area
(US Department of the Interior, 1965 and 1967). The project was
designed to produce about 34TWh annually, or about fve times
the amount of electricity the entire state of Alaska consumes today.
The resulting “Lake Kennedy” would have required almost 30 years
to fll up completely, and would been the largest artifcial reservoir
in the world. The proposed dam would have been 162m high and
1430m long.
More than a quarter million salmon pass through Rampart
Canyon each year, and millions of ducks make their homes in the
wetlands of the Yukon Flats, which would have been fooded under
the reservoir. About 1500 people would have been directly dis-
placed by the huge reservoir, and the lives of thousands more would
have been negatively impacted by the loss of fsh and animal life.
Conservationists, indigenous peoples in the region, and poor project
economics combined to eventually quash the proposal (Nash, 2001;
O’Neill, 1995). USACE formally decided against proceeding with
the Rampart project in 1971.
In 1980, the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge was created,
protecting most of the proposed reservoir area from development.
Other large dam proposals in the watershed discussed during the
1950s and 60s included Woodchopper (3200MW), Holy Cross
(2800MW), Ruby (460MW) on the main stream of the Yukon River,
and a 530MW project on the Porcupine River, a major tributary of
the Yukon (Alaska Power Administration, 1980).
CONVENTIONAL HYDROPOWER GENERATION
Despite all of the failed attempts at mega-projects reviewed above,
several conventional, utility-scale hydroelectric facilities in the
watershed were built in the Yukon Territory, the largest being the
40MW Whitehorse Rapids Dam. Today, there is nearly 76MW
of conventional hydro power generation capacity in the Yukon
Territory. It should be noted that 30MW of this capacity, the
Aishihik development, is located outside of the Yukon River water-
shed in the headwaters of the adjacent Alsek River watershed. Not
counting micro-scale installations on private property, there are no
conventional hydroelectric facilities in the Yukon River watershed
installed in Alaska.
In addition to the hydro power capacity, the Yukon Territory
also has about 52MW of installed diesel generation capacity,
and 0.8MW of wind, for a total installed capacity of 130MW.
The vast majority of this capacity is owned by the Yukon Energy
Corporation, and the remainder by the Yukon Electrical Company
Ltd. (and several private installations with one contained in the
table), as shown in Table 1.
The three largest hydroelectric plants are owned by Yukon
Energy, while Fish Lake is owned by the Yukon Electrical Company
Limited. The three larger plants were originally developed by the
Northern Canada Power Commission, which turned over these
assets to the Yukon Energy Corp. in 1987. Also note that six tur-
bines totalling 17.9MW, over 23% of installed capacity, are over
50 years old.
Micro-hydroelectric development, both in the Yukon Territory
and northwestern BC, started attracting more interest in the 1980s
and 1990s. A 250kW hydroelectric plant in Fraser, BC (south of
Haines Junction in the Yukon Territory) powers the Canadian
Table 1: Existing hydro
generation capacity in the
Yukon Territory
(Yukon Energy Corp., 2001):
Facility
Installed
capacity
(MW)
Turbine sizes
(MW/yr
installed)
Head
(m)
Owner
Whitehorse
Rapids
40.00
#1: 5.8 / 1958
#2: 5.8 / 1958
#3: 8.4 / 1969
#4: 20 / 1985
18
Yukon Energy
Corp.
Aishihik
Lake
30.00
#1: 15 / 1975
#2: 15 / 1975
175
Yukon Energy
Corp.
Mayo Lake 5.00
#1: 2.5 / 1952
#2: 2.5 / 1952
32
Yukon Energy
Corp.
Fish Lake 1.30
#1: 0.6 / 1950
#2: 0.7 / 1950
Plant
#1: 128
Plant
#2: 61
Yukon Elect.
Co. Ltd.
Rancheria 0.16 0.16 / 1990 38 Beverly Dinning
Total 76.46
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 35
NEW HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS
border station, and was completed in 1990. It is owned and operat-
ed by a small private corporation and sells power to the Federal and
provincial consumers of power at Fraser. The Rancheria 155kW
microhydro plant in the Yukon Territory was also installed in 1990,
and is also privately owned (by the operator of the Rancheria Lodge
and RV Park). The 2MW Pine Creek hydropower plant in Atlin,
BC, came online in April 2009.
Yukon Energy’s 20-year resource plan (Yukon Energy
Corporation, 2006) states that the two industrial sectors of
mining and gas pipeline development will drive future electricity
demand. In the mid-1990s, the report Yukon Energy Resources:
Hydro (Yukon Economic Development, 1997) listed eleven unde-
veloped small hydroelectric sites (each under 10MW of potential)
that were considered feasible, shown in Table 2, partly due to
their proximity to existing transmission lines. Note that the total
installed capacity of all these undeveloped hydroelectric sites,
43.9MW, would still not equal the current diesel installed capac-
ity of 52MW, but the additional hydropower would go a long
way toward displacing almost all diesel electric generation in the
Yukon Territory.
Other hydro projects were also considered in the past such as
Chutla Creek and Tank Creek near Carcross (on the Whitehorse-
Aishihik-Faro, or WAF, power grid); and Copper Joe Creek, Nines
Creek and the Donjek River, all near the (diesel-electric) communi-
ties of Burwash Landing and Destruction Bay (about 30km apart
and sharing the same diesel plant). Currently Yukon Energy is plan-
ning the “Mayo B” project which will more than double the output
of the Mayo hydro plant (at Wareham dam) by building a new
powerhouse 3km downstream of the existing powerhouse ( http://
www.yukonenergy.ca/about/projects/mayob/ ). Another option cur-
rently being considered is called the Southern Lakes Enhancement,
which would utilize Atlin Lake as a reservoir for the Marsh Lake/
Yukon River system that supplies the Whitehorse Rapids hydro
facility in Whitehorse (http://www.yukonenergy.ca/about/projects/
slenhancement/).
Both Atlin Lake and Marsh Lake would be used for greater
seasonal storage to supply more hydro and for the peak demand
months of December and January. The environmental impacts of
such altered hydrology would require substantial study for better
understanding.
In Alaska, there are several small-scale conventional hydro-
power proposals presently being pursued within the Yukon River
watershed. Contrary to previous trends noted above, these projects
have been driven primarily not by industrial demand, but by a
need for clean and affordable power to displace diesel generation
in remote communities. In 2008, as the Alaska state government
was reaping the windfall of high oil prices which produced sig-
nifcant tax revenues, the state legislature established the Alaska
Renewable Energy Fund (AREF) with a $100M investment, fol-
lowed by $25M in 2009.
The AREF has funded both feasibility studies and preliminary
construction of small hydropower throughout Alaska, includ-
ing some projects in the Yukon River watershed. Golden Valley
Electric Association received AREF funding to study the Little
Gerstle site on the Tanana River, and a run-of-river site on the
Nenana River. The Alaska Power and Telephone Company
(AP&T) also received AREF funding for design and construction
costs of the Yerrick Creek hydro development near Tok. AP&T
has previously developed village-scale (2-10MW), high head, low
impact hydropower in other parts of Alaska, namely the Southeast,
as well as projects in Central America, and are now bringing this
expertise to the Yukon River watershed. As of the time of writing,
the state of Alaska’s 2010 investment in the AREF has not yet
been determined.
IN-STREAM (HYDROKINETIC) POWER PROJECTS
Because many isolated small communities in the watershed still rely
on costly diesel power as well as local resources such as fsh, a vari-
ety of small-scale, low impact hydroelectric technologies are attract-
ing great interest, including in-stream, or hydrokinetic turbines that
do not require dams or diversions of water. In the summer of 2008,
a 5kW hydrokinetic turbine was installed in the Yukon River village
of Ruby, Alaska – one of the frst in-stream turbines successfully
installed in the US. Other Yukon watershed-based hydrokinetic
projects in Alaska include planned installations in the communi-
ties of Nenana, Eagle, Tanana, and Whitestone, and at least one
project slated for the Canadian side of the watershed. All of these
projects are in various stages of planning, permitting, design, and/
or installation.
The Ruby project has provided valuable information regarding
“proof of concept” for the viability of in-stream hydrokinetic power
generation and has also identifed challenges that will need to be
overcome before widespread deployment occurs. Specifcally, the
5kW turbine installed at Ruby by the Yukon River Inter-Tribal
Watershed Council (www.yritwc.org) and designed and manufac-
tured by New Energy Corporation (www.newenergycorp.ca) based
in Calgary, Alberta, incorporated an inverter that was originally
used for wind energy projects.
The inverter software was successfully adapted for expected
power parameters more typical of a slow moving river than rap-
idly changing wind currents. This system properly integrated into
the village’s diesel electric grid, thus demonstrating the technical
feasibility of the technology. Alternatively, mechanical diversion
of stream debris without obstructing river fow and cost-effective
anchoring of the turbine and support structure in the fastest moving
part of the river still present challenges to this particular installation
and all in-stream hydrokinetic projects on the Yukon River. Impacts
to migrating and resident fsh populations are another ongoing area
of investigation.
The hydrokinetic project proposed in Eagle, Alaska, by AP&T is
in fnal design stages and will also use a New Energy Corporation
in-stream turbine, but instead of a 5kW version like in Ruby, this
will be a 25kW turbine. Both of these turbines employ a unique
design that incorporates a robust, slow moving, vertical axis turbine
housed on a pontoon boat that aims for minimal impact to fsh and
durability from the elements.
Both the Ruby and Eagle projects, if successful, would eventu-
ally include a series of turbines that could meet a large portion of
the community’s electrical load during the ice-free summer months,
thus allowing diesel generators to be completely turned off much of
the time and only starting up when high demand exceeds the power
production of the hydrokinetic turbines. This would require sophis-
ticated switchgear to integrate the diesel generators and hydroki-
netic turbines, but such technology is already available and in use
in Alaska villages integrating wind turbines and diesel generators.
Because the Yukon River freezes in the winter, hydrokinetic tur-
bines such as these, set in pontoon boats anchored to the bottom of
the river, would need to be removed from approximately October
through mid-May. Maintaining anchors over the winter such that
they would not need to be re-set each spring is another area of cur-
rent investigation.
The hydrokinetic project planned for Nenana, Alaska, is a col-
laboration among numerous entities, including the University
of Alaska, Ocean Renewable Power Company, Yukon River
Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, and the municipal and Tribal
governments co-located in Nenana. As envisioned, this will be
a full-blown research project with a test bed for various turbine
technologies and anchoring systems. Currently, the research has
focused on site characterization, effective means of mechanical
debris diversion, anchoring systems, and fsh impacts. The frst
turbine that is slated for installation in the summer of 2011 or
2012 is a helical, cross flow design with an estimated output
of 50kW manufactured by Ocean Renewable Power Company
(www.oceanrenewablepower.com).
While potentially using different technology, all of these projects
in Alaska employ a low environmental impact, robust technology
approach to meeting community energy needs based on similar
imperatives and design criteria, including: relatively slow moving,
high volume water; high conventional energy costs; protection
36 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
NEW HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS
of fsh and other water resources; signifcant debris in the water
column; integration with existing diesel generators and mini-grids;
Maximum displacement of diesel fuel; and severe seasonal icing and
extremely energetic spring break-up
Some “lessons learned” from these early deployments are already
infuencing next generation technologies. For example, New Energy
Corporation is re-designing its turbine to produce more power at
lower current speeds based on initial performance of the turbine
installed at Ruby. Similarly, the Nenana project is incorporating
information about river debris learned at Ruby in designing a flter,
or “trash rack,” to divert incoming material before it reaches the
turbine in Nenana.
Numerous fsh impact studies are now underway that will pro-
vide essential data to help resolve this concern, possibly streamlin-
ing future development efforts. The Alaska Energy Authority has
also created a “Hydrokinetic Working Group” that includes state
and federal permitting and resource agencies, developers, commu-
nities with potential project sites, and others to identify concerns
and possible bottlenecks before they become costly obstacles. As
this is a new process for most agencies, they are also identifying
studies that will be necessary for developers to comply with per-
mitting requirements.
While these technologies are also being deployed throughout
North America and the world, the combination of the Yukon
River resource potential, community and government initiative
throughout the watershed, and availability of funding through the
AREF seems to have created a burgeoning development cluster
within the region.
Within Canada, at Fort Selkirk, Yukon, the Ampair micro-scale
hydrokinetic turbine was tested in 2000 on the Yukon River, near
the mouth of the Pelly River. This was a project sponsored by the
Heritage Branch of the Yukon government (Yukon Energy Corp.,
2001). The turbine is now out of the water. Also, New Energy
Corporation has donated a 5kW turbine identical to the turbine in
Ruby, Alaska, for installation on the Yukon Territory side of the
watershed, to the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council,
but this project is not yet deployed.
OTHER RESOURCE OPPORTUNITIES AND
CHALLENGES WITHIN THE REGION
Both traditional drivers of hydropower development in the water-
shed, i.e., mining and other industrial activity, and new imperatives
such as high fossil energy costs and preference for cleaner energy,
are now providing impetus to develop not just hydropower but
other renewable energy resources found in the watershed. Because
hydropower is the most apparent, seemingly abundant, and his-
torically used renewable resource in the region, it has received the
most attention to date.
However, as efforts to develop locally available wind, tidal,
solar, biomass, and geothermal resources advance, new technical,
economic, and institutional solutions will be necessary to opti-
mize the mix among hydropower (conventional and in-stream),
other renewables, and fossil fuel. Entities such as the Yukon River
Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, a coalition of 70 Tribes and First
Nations in Alaska and Canada and lead developers in the Ruby
hydrokinetic project, are now looking beyond just hydropower
and are involved in community-based solar, wind, and bio-
mass projects along with “green collar” workforce training for
indigenous peoples and net-zero energy effcient residential con-
struction.
Successful past projects and ongoing investigation and dissemi-
nation of “lessons learned” from new hydropower technology in
the region can accelerate and facilitate future renewable energy
development within the watershed and beyond. The AREF, as
described above, has also played an important role over the past
two years in accelerating renewable energy deployment and an
expectation that if technology is properly developed, there will be
funding for its deployment. This is an example of how targeted
programs can be used to achieve policy ends – in this case, reduc-
ing the use of diesel fuel and cost of energy throughout Alaska,
especially the rural areas.
As more renewable energy resources are used to produce elec-
tricity within the Yukon River watershed and elsewhere, concerns
with “grid instability” can be expected to emerge. For example,
as wind or solar energy becomes a higher proportion of the total
amount of electricity generated at any moment in time, uncon-
trolled fuctuations can make the overall electric grid unstable,
compromising power quality and sensitive electronic equipment.
Especially with diesel mini-grids such as those in remote Alaska
villages, this can quickly become a problem as diesel generators
are the primary means of regulating voltage and frequency control
for acceptable power quality and a stable grid.
Hydropower, more than any other renewable energy resource
except geothermal, has an important advantage as a “grid stabiliz-
er” that, when properly confgured, can allow for higher penetra-
tion rates of renewables and maximize diesel displacement. Even
with run-of-river or in-stream hydrokinetic power, because rivers
vary in speed and hence power production much less and slower
than wind or sun, hydro power is a uniquely valuable renewable
energy resource.
While the Yukon River and tributaries present numerous hydro-
power opportunities, the watershed also holds substantial mineral
and fossil energy reserves and lies between some of the largest
natural gas deposits on the continent just north of the watershed
and large markets to the south. Thus, it is likely that the watershed
will see increased development in the future once again driven by
industrial opportunities and distant demand. Given the remote
nature of the region and ongoing dependence, especially among
the indigenous peoples, on locally available natural resources, any
future hydropower development will need to carefully consider
impacts to the people and environment and recognize trade-offs
that such development will require.
Further, these proposed industrial activities will likely infu-
ence the demand and specifc economics for any future hydro-
power projects.
No hydropower discussion in remote, far northern reaches of
the globe would be complete without some consideration of cli-
mate change. Both Alaska and the Yukon Territory are widely
recognized as global “hot spots” already experiencing signif-
cant temperature escalation much higher than the global average,
wide ranging shifts in precipitation, melting permafrost, shore-
line erosion, and increased intensity and frequency of fre events
(IPCC, 2007).
Hydropower production projections based on historic precipi-
Table 2: List of feasible proposed
conventional hydropower sites in
the Yukon Territory and bordering
areas of Northwestern BC (Yukon
Economic Development, 1997)
Proposed Project
Deliverable Annual
Energy (GWh)
Installed
Capacity (MW)
Surprise Lake 48.0 8.5
Moon Lake 44.9 8.5
Wolf River 37.6 4.8
Orchay River 26.6 4.0
Drury Creek 24.8 2.6
North Fork Klondike River 21.0 4.0
Morley River 16.0 2.0
Squanga Creek 10.7 1.8
Lapie River 10.5 2.0
McIntyre Creek #3 5.5 0.7
Aishihik 3rd turbine 5.0 5.0
Total: 250.6 43.9
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 37
NEW HYDRO DEVELOPMENTS
tation patterns may not accurately predict future energy output,
and in extreme cases, infrastructure such as dams, penstocks, and
transmission lines may be compromised as well under conditions
of melting permafrost and increase shoreline erosion.
Additional challenges to hydropower development in the Yukon
River watershed include:
Short construction and study season.
Greater expense for everything due to cost of shipping.
Limited access to many areas.
Limited human capacity (technical experts, maintenance specialists,
operators, etc.).
Isolated grids.
Unpredictable energy demand (from industries such as mining).
Diesel-electric communities receive subsidies that reduce eco-
nomic drivers to fnd alternatives to diesel generation in those
communities.
The Yukon River watershed is a large region with a small popula-
tion and limited revenue from natural resources. This limits the
capacity of communities, utilities and governments to invest in
capital-intensive renewable energy solutions.
CONCLUSION
As one of the greatest watersheds of North America and the world,
over the past century the Yukon River system has inspired a wide
array of hydropower development proposals, ranging in capacity
from several hundred to several billion watts. Only a small frac-
tion of the watershed’s technically and environmentally feasible
hydropower potential has been tapped, and the 21st century is
certain to see pressure for additional hydropower development. A
huge amount of environmental and technical information must be
disseminated in the process of planning, policy development and
implementation, and coordination across jurisdictions. Properly
informing the public is necessary for the democratic, pro-active
process of creating the future that the Yukon River watershed’s
citizens and other stakeholders desire, and to protect publicly
owned natural resources.
It appears that the Alaska portion of the watershed has trend-
ed from proposed – but never completed – mega-projects from
the middle of the last century to more recent environmentally
sensitive and community-driven small-scale projects, some of
which are employing new technologies. High diesel fuel prices,
environmental concerns, and ongoing local dependency on har-
vesting natural resources such as fsh are driving this transition
to a clean energy economy in which village-scale conventional
and hydrokinetic in-stream developments are uniquely suited to
reduce diesel use and minimize fsheries impacts. Other renew-
able energy options are also being actively explored. As commu-
nities throughout the watershed beneft from improved regional
cooperation and resource management, such technologies and
approaches – if successful – can be expected to rapidly expand.
Government support such as the Alaska Renewable Energy Fund
appears to be creating a development cluster that could beneft
the watershed and far beyond.
Organizations such as the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed
Council and cooperative structures such as the Yukon River Salmon
Agreement are improving watershed-wide communication and
opportunities for regional resource management and coordination.
Successfully balancing the competing needs and desires of the vari-
ous watershed stakeholders will require, among other things, good
information, long term planning, cross-jurisdictional coordination,
resource protection, and enlightened policy, and could provide
important lessons and role models for all of us.
Brian Yanity, EIT, is an electrical engineer with WHPacifc,
Inc. in Anchorage, Alaska, and an adjunct faculty member
at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) School of
Engineering. His work focuses on village-scale renewable
energy projects and energy planning for rural Alaska. Mr.
Yanity received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from
Columbia University, and his M.S. in arctic engineering from
UAA, with a focus on small-scale hydropower systems for
cold-climate applications. Email: [email protected]
Brian Hirsch, PhD, is the Senior Project Leader for
the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL)
Alaska initiative, a part of the US Department of Energy
Offce of Energy Effciency and Renewable Energy. Dr.
Hirsch received his doctorate in Land Resources from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a focus on energy
issues and indigenous communities in northern regions of
the world. Email: [email protected]
References
Alaska Power Administration, US Department of the Interior (1980).
Hydroelectric Alternatives for the Alaska Railbelt.
Bureau of Reclamation-Alaska District, U.S. Department of the Interior
(1955). Yukon-Taiya Project: Alaska-Canada.
S. Huntington (1993). Shadows on the Koyukuk: An Alaskan Native’s Life
Along the River. Alaska Northwest Books.
Indian Law Resource Center (2003). International Opportunities for the
Protection of the Yukon River Watershed: A Handbook of Strategies.
http://www.indianlaw.org/sites/indianlaw.org/files/AK%20Yukon%20
Handbook.pdf
IPCC (2007). Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution
of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, Pachauri,
R.K and Reisinger, A. (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 104 pp.
R. Nash (2001). Wilderness and the American Mind. Yale University Press.
F.B. Norris (1996). Legacy of the Gold Rush: An Administrative History of
the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. National Park Service, Alaska
System Support Office, Anchorage.
D. O’Neill (2006). A Land Gone Lonesome: An Inland Voyage Along the
Yukon River. Basic Books.
D. O’Neill (1995). The Firecracker Boys. St. Martin’s Griffin.
G. Schramm (1968) “The economics of an Upper Yukon basin power
development scheme” The Annals of Regional Science. Volume 2, Number
1/ December 1968, pages 214-228.
US Department of the Interior (1967). Alaska Natural Resources and the
Rampart Project.
US Department of the Interior (1965). Rampart Project, Alaska, Field Report,
Vol. II. January 1965.
J.M. Wardle (1957) “A major power plan for Yukon River waters in the
Canadian Northwest”, Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers, London,
England, Vol. 7, July 1957, pages 441-464.
Yukon Economic Development (1997). Yukon Energy Resources: Hydro.
Yukon Energy Corporation (2006). 20-Year Resource Plan: 2006-2025.
May 2006.
Yukon Energy Corporation and Yukon Development Corporation (2001). The
Power of Water: The Story of Hydropower in the Yukon. November 2001.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to following reviewers: Sean MacKinnon of the Yukon Energy
Solutions Centre (Yukon Department of Energy, Mines and Resources), and
Neil McMahon of the Alaska Energy Authority.
IWP& DC
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
38 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
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HYDRO POWER
PLANT EQUIPMENT
ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH
Penzinger Strasse 76, A-1141 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +43 (1) 89100-0, Fax: +43 (1) 8946046
[email protected] • www.andritz.com
Your Partner
for renewable and clean energy
We focus on the best solution – from water to wire.
Voith Hydro Holding GmbH & Co. KG
Alexanderstrasse 11
89522 Heidenheim/Germany
www.voithhydro.com
A Voith and Siemens Company
Ⅲ Water power plant equipment
(electrical and mechanical)
Ⅲ Pumps
Ⅲ Governors
Ⅲ Automation
Ⅲ Modernization of existing power plants
Ⅲ Hydro power services
Ⅲ Ocean energies
INSTRUMENTATION
(DAM MONITORING)
Vikas Kothari: Executive Director Tel: 91 11 29565552 TO 55
Om Metals Infraprojects Ltd. Fax: 91 11 29565551
4th Floor, NBCC Plaza, Mobile: 91 98110 68101
Tower III, Sector 5, Email: [email protected]
Pushp Vihar, [email protected]
Saket, New Delhi, 110 017, INDIA Web: www.ommetals.com
Turnkey EPC contracts for:
•Radial Gates •Trash Racks & TRCM
•Vertical Gates •Gantry Cranes & EOT
•Penstocks •Mechanical/ Hydraulic Hoists
•Stoplogs •Draft Tubes
Turnkey EPC contracts for:
•Radial Gates •Trash Racks & TRCM
•Vertical Gates •Gantry Cranes & EOT
•Penstocks •Mechanical/ Hydraulic Hoists
•Stoplogs •Draft Tubes
Om Metals
N World wide referenced water to wire General Contractor
N Turbines and Generators
N Electromechanical Equipment
N Switchgears
N Control Protection Monitoring and SCADA Systems
N Balance of the Plant
N Turn key projects
N Rehabilitation
S.T.E. S.p.a. - Via Sorio, 120 - 35141, PADOVA(Italy)
tel. +39 049 2963900 - fax. +39 049 2963901
Email: [email protected] Web: www.ste-energy.com
ISO 9001 CERTIFIED
Geokon, Incorporated manufactures a full range
of geotechnical instrumentation suitable for
monitoring dams. Geokon instrumentation employs
vibrating wire technology that provides measurable
advantages and proven long-term stability.
The World Leader in
Vibrating Wire Technology
TM
Geokon, Incorporated
48 Spencer Street
Lebanon, New Hampshire
03766
•
USA
Dam Monitoring Instrumentation
1
•
603
•
448
•
1562
1
•
603
•
448
•
3216
[email protected]
www.geokon.com
Dam Safety Instrumentation • Fiber Optic and
Vibrating Wire Technologies • In-Situ Testing
and Turn-Key Solutions
• Piezometers
• Pressure Cells
• Extensometers
• Crackmeters
• Inclinometers
• Tiltmeters
1-877-ROCTEST
[email protected] • www.roctest.com
33.1.64.06.40.80
[email protected] • www.telemac.fr
WORLD MARKETPLACE
42 AUGUST 2010 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
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SMALL HYDROELECTRIC
POWER SETS
SMALL HYDROELECTRIC
POWER SETS
Turbines up to 20 MW
Alternators up to 22 MVA
Governors
Switchboards
79261 Gutach/ Germany
Tel. +49 7685 9106 - 0 · Fax: - 10
www.wkv-ag.com
Water-to-Wire Solutions Made in Germany
Turbine & Alternator Manufacture
W
TRASHRACK RAKES
MICRO/SMALL
HYDROELECTRIC POWER SETS
Turbines up to 20 MW
Alternators up to 22 MVA
Governors
Switchboards
79261 Gutach/ Germany
Tel. +49 7685 9106 - 0 · Fax: - 10
www.wkv-ag.com
Water-to-Wire Solutions Made in Germany
Turbine & Alternator Manufacture
W
INSTRUMENTATION
(GEOTECHNICAL)
Partial Discharge?
www.pdix.com
PARTIAL DISCHARGE DETECTION
+43 - 7234 - 83 902
WORLD MARKETPLACE
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2010 43
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VALVES FOR HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS
● Butterfly Valves
● Spherical Valves
● Cone Jet Valves
● Needle Valves
● Sleeve Valves
● Pressure Reducing Valves
● Airation Valves
Adams Schweiz AG
Austrasse 49, CH 8045 Zürich, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 44 461 54 15
Fax: +41 (0) 44 461 50 20
e-mail: [email protected]
Internet: www.adamsarmaturen.ch
VALVES VALVES WATER TURBINES
WATERPROOFING
Stronger together.
Member of the Group of companies
Glenfeld Valves Ltd your specialist manufacturer of Discharge,
Control, Non-Return and Isolating Valves (including Butterfy
Valves and Gate Valves) for:
• Dams and Reservoirs
• Water Transmission Pipelines
• Power Stations.
For a world wide network of
manufacturing and service
organisations offering local
support please contact :
Glenfeld Works, Queens Drive,
Kilmarnock, Ayrshire,
KA1 3XF, UK
T: +44 1563 521150
F: +44 1563 545616
E: [email protected]
For details of our full product
range please refer to our website:
www.glenfeld.co.uk
One of the world's
leading manufacturers
of high-quality valves
for dams and
hydropower
– even in
www.vag-group.com
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WATERPROOFING AND PROTECTION
of concrete and RCC dams,
embankment dams, hydraulic tunnels,
canals, reservoirs
WITH FLEXIBLE SYNTHETIC MEMBRANES
Turnkey projects: design manufacturing,
supply, installation.
CARPI TECH
Via Passeggiata 1
6828 Balerna - Switzerland
T: +41-91-6954000 F: +41-91-6954009
E: [email protected] www.carpitech.com
INDUSTRY SHOWCASE EQUIPMENT FOR SALE
BOLTIGHT Bolt Tensioners
Special and Standard Bolt Tensioners for Water
and Wave Energy, Structural and other Critical
Bolting Applications.
Reliable and superior quality bolt tensioners
available on fast delivery.
[email protected]
Call: +44 845 500 5556
Website: www.boltight.com
Large Hydro
is much more than a big idea
[email protected]
www.andritz.com
ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH
Penzinger Strasse 76, 1141 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +43 (1) 89100, Fax: +43 (1) 8946046
ANDRI TZ HYDRO has more than
400,000 MW of turbine capacity and
approx. 160,000 MVA of generator
capacity i nstall ed worl dwi de. The
combi nat i on of experi ence, i nnova-
t i on and gl obal manuf act ur i ng i s
ANDRITZ HYDRO’s driving force for
technology and customer sati sfacti on.
We focus on the best solution – from
water to wire.