The Schwarzach and Dorferbach hydroelectric power plants in Austria are set to come online in autumn this year.
Construction of both plants, by Austria’s Tyrolean utility company TIWAG, commenced in spring 2005 and is expected to cost US$42M. The projects are designed to produce a combined 99GWh/yr.
The 9.9MW Schwarzach hydro plant has a design discharge of 4.6m3/sec and a head of 264m. It is expected to generate 59GWh/yr, and water from its 290km2 catchment area will be diverted downstream from the community of Hopfgarten in the Defreggen valley into a 4.3km penstock which links the intake to the power house in the Isel valley, near the village of Huben. Electricity will be transported via an underground cable to a nearby substation at the existing Kalserbach hydro plant.
Dorferbach hydro plant has a maximum capacity of 9.8MW and is set to generate 40GWh/yr. It has a design discharge of 1.8m3/sec and a head of 685m, and will divert water from a 27.2km2 catchment area, draining the southern flank of the 3672m high Grossvenediger mountain.
Both plants will have a single vertical Pelton turbine, with six and four nozzles respectively, and a synchronous generator. All planning stages from pre-feasibility study to tender procedure, site management and surveying are carried out by TIWAG personnel.