OSSBERGER GmbH + Co. KG delivered the complete electromechanical equipment for the new small-scale hydroelectric power plant Tischbach. At full-load operation, the crossflow turbine, which is designed for a wide partial-load range, achieves a bottleneck capacity of 238 kW.
photo credit: Ossberger
HYDRO
HPP TISCHBACH SUPPLIES 120 HOUSEHOLDS WITH GREEN ENERGY FROM THUS FAR UNTAPPED ENERGY POTENTIAL In July 2020, roughly nine months after the start of construction in the Canton of Graubünden, Albula Landwasser Kraftwerke‘s (ALK) Tischbach small hydroelectric power plant has commenced regular operations. Thanks to the new construction, a previously unused hydro-energetic supply line between the Tischbach water catchment to the Bergün balancing reservoir is now employed for the generation of clean power. As part of the necessary innovation of the damaged supply line, the plant‘s power house could be built with minimal temporary interference in the landscape. The complete electromechanical equipment, whose core is a durable crossflow turbine with a maximum installed output of 238 kW, was supplied by Ossberger, a German expert in small-scale hydroelectric power plants.
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summer of 2020, the Tischbach small hydroelectric power plant was connected to the grid as the third ALK plant. photo credit: ALK
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ounded in the 1960s, Graubündenbased Albula Landwasser Kraftwerke AG (ALK) operates two hydroelectric power plants, Filisur and Tiefencastel. 75 percent of ALK‘s company shares are owned by the Swiss power company AXPO, 15.74 percent are held by EWD power plant Davos AG, 5 percent by the Canton of Graubünden, and the remaining 4.26 percent are shared by the local municipalities Albula/Alvra, Bergün, Filisur and Schmitten. The Filisur power plant, which was completed in 1967 (water catchments from Albula and Landwasser and a central feed water system) employs two vertical shaft Francis turbines to generate power, with a bottleneck capacity of 32.5 MW each; in normal years, the plant generates roughly 286 GWh of green energy. In 1989, ALK started operating the downstream power plant Tiefencastel. Both of its vertical shaft Francis turbines achieve a maximum output of 12 MW each and produce approximately 103 GWh of power in a normal year. In the
The damaged DN400 steel pipe was replaced by a penstock with DN700 GFK pipes.
UNTAPPED ENERGY POTENTIAL Felix Hansmann, project lead, details the development history of the Tischbach hydroelectric power plant: ”There is a height difference of approximately 37 m between the Tischbach water catchment that belongs to the Filisur plant, which feeds the Bergün balancing reservoir via a roughly 300 m long feed line, which have thus far not been used for energy. After the approx. 60 year old pipeline had to be replaced due to material wear and corrosion damage, we developed a concept that makes this height difference usable for energy production.” Hansmann further notes that the implementation of the new small power plant became economically feasible thanks to the approval of the Swiss Ökostromtarif (green energy tariff) funds, so-called „feed-in remuneration to cover costs“ (KEV) - new reference: feed-in tariff system (EVS). When EVS funds were granted in the summer of 2019, ALK had already been granted the approval for the replacement
May 2021
Projekt KW Tischbach zek Hydro International 2021 Englisch.indd 46
06.05.2021 15:48:37
