At the Gondo hydropower plant, EES has completed overhauling of two hydroelectric groups and the third was replaced altogether to increase the plant’s output and generation capacity.
Work on the three hydroelectric machine groups at the Gondo Power plant was started back in 2012 and it has now been completed. After the third group was replaced, an additional 12MW of power has been added, which now takes the total output of the hydropower plant to 57MW.
The overhaul of the groups 1 and 2 is claimed to guarantee the power plant’s availability. To optimise operations of the plant, the facility will now be remotely controlled from Alpiq’s power plant operations centre in Lausanne.
EES also claims that due to the overhauling and the replacement procedures, the annual production at the plant has increased from 15 million kWh, to 198 million kWh, which is equivalent to annual consumption of about 50,000 households.
With the modernisation, the power can also now supply primary control power and reactive power to the national grid operator Swissgrid. For the project, EES invested a total of CHF22m ($22.94m).
Gondo power plant is located near Lake Sera in the Zwischbergental valley and it first started operations in 1952. It is a part of Energie Electrique du Simplon hydropower facility, which also includes the Gabi and Tannuwald power plants and the Eggen and Fah reservoirs. The total output of the entire facility is 74MW and annually it generates about 247 million kWh.
Image: Alpiq’s subsidiary EES completes modernisation of hydropower plant in Switzerland. Photo: Courtesy of Alpiq Holding Ltd.
