Hydro Exploitation

The mountains trusts us with their water.

And we take good care of it.

3.

Our profession: hydro-electricity exploitation

Our clients are mainly owners of electricity production installations who entrust us with the management and maintenance of their installations. Our activities range from the capture of water to the electricity production centres which we exploit. The owners transport and commercialise the energy produced.

HYDRO Exploitation SA is a service company involved with electricity developments. Based in Sion, our company was founded in 2002 by EOS Holding SA (presently known as Alpiq Holding SA), Forces Motrices Valaisannes SA and Grande Dixence SA. Romande Energie Holding SA, then Forces Motrices de la Gougra SA joined our shareholding in 2007 and 2011 respectively.

In 2007 we also took over the activities of the Alp-Hydro company.

Les Clées La Dernier

We operate a series of works consisting of 40 hydro-electric stations distributed in 12 groups, with the installed potential of about 22% of Swiss hydro-electric power.

Combined, these installations produce more than 16% of hydro-electric energy in our country.

Montcherand

traductions du plan

La Sarraz

Région Ouest Rivaz

Sonzier Taulan Veytaux Vouvry

Gebidem Rhône Navizence

Diablerets

Farettes Peuffeyre Miéville Salanfe

Fully

FMMB

Alstafel

Région Centre

Hongrin Pont-de-la-Tine

Bitsch

Ernen Binn

M‘Bach

Moerel

Vissoie

Bramois Chamoson Chandoline Mottec Turtmann Nendaz

Bieudron

Cleuson Grande Dixence

Ferpècle Arolla Fionnay

Gabi Gondo Tannuwald

Lona Moiry Zmutt Stafel

Région Est

Our mission

Specific know-how

We commit ourselves to the optimal exploitation of electricity works with which we are entrusted, by maximising availability and security.

We create added value for our clients, thanks to sustainable concepts and innovatory solutions.

The sites where we work are extremely varied.

They differ in size, power, production volume, and the technology used to retain or turbine water. Exploiting such installations requires the specific know-how that HYDRO Exploitation has possessed for decades.

To this effect, more than 500 colleagues, distributed in an area from the Rhone glacier to the Vaudois Jura region, are active in construction sites, in engineering as well as at our central workshops.

5.

A centre of expertise

Our versatility is our strength. Under the same roof, we bring together all the specific expertise necessary for exploitation (management and maintenance), as well as restoration of hydroelectric installations. The synergy which results from this organisation is of primary benefit to our clients.

Management of installations includes the permanent monitoring and regular maintenance of the installations entrusted to us.

Inspections and tests are carried out regularly by our colleagues. A 24-hour stand-by service ensures technical support whenever there are problems at power stations. Furthermore, a repair service (diagnosis and intervention) operates permanently.

Management also includes periodic maintenance work carried out with the help of GMAO. We also provide short, medium and long term projections of water supplies. From control centres, our specialists survey and control the filling of dam reservoirs, taking into account the part played by natural supply.

Maintenance activities are carried out by multidisciplinary teams made up of civil engineering, electricity, computer science and mechanics specialists. They concern themselves with the developments which are entrusted to us like other installations in Switzerland or abroad.

Thanks to the development of innovatory services in aptitude, management of danger or condition monitoring (see p.8), we have evolved towards a form of maintenance based on danger.

7.

A variety of services

The central workshops

Each year our engineers, project chiefs, technicians and other employees elaborate and manage more than 1000 maintenance and renewal projects.

Civil engineering

Télématics

• assessments, concepts, projects and maintenance for water inlets, stone traps, grit chambers; underground work, galleries and siphons • auscultation of works, dams, geodesic analyses

• conception and carrying out of automation, tele-management, tele-protection and teletransmission • conception and carrying out of computer networks - telecommunications

Electrical • establishment of terms of reference for the renewal of electrical installations • cleaning electric machines with CO2 • oil chemical analyses (insulating, lubrication, heating) and water • treatment of transformer isolating oils • conception, projects, maintenance of installations and electrical protection of power plants, of transport posts and lines

Mechanics • maintenance of turbines, pumps et sluice gates, servicing of installations • carrying out and managing engineering projects in the overall field of steel construction (grills, grit chambers, sluice gates, surge tanks, pressure pipelines, pumps)

We have our own workshops, centralised in Martigny. In an area of 3000 square metres there is: • a machine workshop • a wheel restoration workshop • a workshop for the servicing of mechanical components • a chemical analysis laboratory There are also non-destructive inspections (re-usage, video-filming, etc) of the various mechanical elements built or serviced in the workshops as well as in the power stations.

Thanks to this centralised structure, we can react quickly and in a flexible way if there is a problem or a failure in a power plant by increasing the availability of installations.

A training centre In order to ensure the durability of our specialised know-how, our central workshops also act as a training centre for apprentices in precision mechanics, computing and production mechanics.

9.

Responses to emerging needs

Safety in rivers

With our know-how, we endeavour to elaborate new services which will respond to the emerging needs of the hydro-electric owners.

Expertise

Développement

• Aptitude for service It evaluates structural stability of installations technically, given the mechanical demands imposed by electricity production.

• Auscultation and underwater engineering With the aid of a robot equipped with cameras and sound imaging instruments, we draw up a report of the state of underwater elements, with a minimum impact on production. Our specialists intervene with specific targets.

• Risk Management It limits the uncertainty related to the exploitation of development and the carrying out of important maintenance projects.

• Management of sediment It ensures the functionality of safety organs and hydroelectric production structures with regard to silting.

• Sediment extraction Using underwater pumps, we proceed to the localised extraction of accumulated sediment from the strategic parts of the compensating basins.

• Bathometry Our multi-beam echo-sounder measures the state of silting of these elements before and after our intervention. It also quickly calculates the volume of water stocked behind the dam.

HYDRO Exploitation takes into consideration the potential risk caused by the frequentation rate of flooding of waterway surrounds.

High summer temperatures favour melting of glaciers and violent storms fill hydroelectric installations. The surplus discharges in rivers provoke rises in water levels, which are as sudden as they are significant.

Warning notices clearly highlight the dangerous locations.

We offer several services enabling the identification and the estimation of reducing danger in rivers linked to the exploitation of developments: • an analysis of danger in order to evaluate the probability of a person confronting a sudden rise in water level in a particular zone and the possible consequences for the person • installation of a luminous beacon and explicit photographs further enable the perception of danger; • commitment of “HYDRO Guides” to provide direct and personalised information on site.

11.

Our client, a partner

HYDRO Exploitation establishes a privileged relationship with its clients whom the company considers as fully fledged partners. The size of our company ensures clients of an optimal cost-performance relationship.

Based on well-known competence, proximity, flexibility and transparency, our relationships with our clients are inevitably long-term.

A commitment to quality Our virtues • unique experience and tested competence of electric production development, whatever their type and their size • a portfolio of extensive services covering all electric production sectors, advice in servicing, up to integral exploitation of site • a vision of long-term management • dedicated infrastructures, with central workshops offering large flexibility • innovative and economic solutions, safe and respectful of the environment for globally demanding projects

HYDRO Exploitation has committed itself to quality: this is linked to the safety of people and equipment, but also to management of the company and to the environment.

HYDRO Exploitation commits itself to legal demands, regulations and agreements in the sector, in order to prevent pollution related to its activities, to improve its environmental performance each year.

We are certified: • ISO 14001: management of the environmentt • ISO 9001: management of quality • OHSAS 18001: management of safety • ISO 3834: welding techniques • ISO 31000: danger management

Photos: O. Maire , M. Martinez, Essence Design, H. Preisig I Graphisme: www.eddy pelfini.ch I Conception/rédaction: www.agence-dialog.ch

hydro exploitation Rue des Creusets 41 Case postale 750 CH - 1950 Sion Tél. +41 (0)27 328 44 11 Fax +41 (0)27 328 44 12 www.hydro-exploitation.ch