Andritz Hydro is to reconstruct and rehabilitate two 178MW Francis units for the Inga 2 hydropower plant in DR Congo in a EUR45M contract deal.
As part of a consortium, andritz Hydro is responsible for the entire mechanical part of the rehabilitation including the repair and overhaul of the penstocks, the hydraulic steelworks, and the two Francis turbines. In order to achieve high efficiency with optimum performance, high reliability, and low maintenance requirements, all core parts of the turbines with runner diameters of 6.2 m will be newly designed and replaced by modern, robust equipment.
The Inga hydropower plant was built in the 1970s on the Congo River, about 300km south of the capital, Kinshasa, and currently uses only a small part of the enormous hydropower potential available. With the modernization and repair of the two turbines, which have been out of service for many years, the government of DR Congo is taking an important step towards improving the country’s national electric grid, which presently suffers frequent outages.
Commissioning of the new units is scheduled for 2015.