Swedish utility Skelleftea Kraft and Voith have inaugurated the Bruksfors hydroelectric project in the country’s northeast, following the rehabilitation of the plant including the installation of a power unit.
Voith supplied a 250KW StreamDiver unit for the project, under a contract awarded by the utility in 2014.
Manufactured at Voith’s small hydro competence center Kössler, the StreamDiver unit can either be completely submerged to provide standalone operation or can be integrated into existing power plants.
Voith has developed the StreamDiver in order to take advantage of the unused high energetic potential at run-of-river power stations with low heads across the world.
The power unit comprises a permanent-magnet generator embedded in an oil free bulb unit, available in the sizes from 50KW up to 800KW.
This compact and eco-friendly turbine ensures minimum maintenance and operating costs, Voith said.
A StreamDiver pilot project is operating since three years for Austria’s largest utility, Verbund, at its 5MW Nussdorf plant located near Vienna.
With a maximum output of 450KW, the StreamDiver now has over 24,000 operating hours, and has exported more than 7GWh of electricity.
Earlier this year, Voith Hydro Canada and its consortium partner Stuart Olson won a contract from Manitoba Hydro to deliver synchronous condensers for the Riel Synchronous Condensers project.
The contract includes design, supply, installation and commissioning of four synchronous condensers each rated 250 MVAR.