ITECO Engineering Ltd.
Alte Obfelderstrasse 68
Postfach
8910 Affoltern a.A.
Switzerland
Tel: +41-(0)44-762 18 18
Fax: +41-(0)44-762 18 15
E-mail: iteco@iteco.ch
www.iteco.ch
Economic Power without compromises
New hydropower sites are nowadays rare in Switzerland. Hence efforts are focused to upgrade and modernise existing power plants to improve their efficiency. After ninety years of operation, the penstock of the Stenna hydropower plant had to be repaired more and more frequently and the costs for operation of the three small turbines increased. Several options were studied ranging from shutting down the entire plant to its complete refurbishment with an increased head. It became obvious that in case of further operation, the penstock as well as all machinery and hydraulic steel works would have to be replaced, almost a complete new construction.
Finally it was decided to keep the existing general layout and some structures like the weir and desilting basin despite the more than doubled design discharge. Even the historic power house building remained unchanged. However, due to its limited inside space and vicinity to hotels, a water cooling system had to be introduced to evacuate the heat of the machinery without noise emission outside the building.
Thanks to appropriate decisions taken during the phases of tendering, planning and construction, generation costs of less than 5 Rp/kWh (3.2 US cts/kWh) could be achieved,a price competitive even in the future European's free power market.
The penstock follows a downhill skiing run in one of the largest and most modern tourist resorts in the Alps. Pipes and other equipment for artificial snow production were implemented together with the new penstock.
| design discharge (Qmax) | 850 I/s (before 400 I/s) |
| gross head (Hbr) | 242 m |
| penstock (ductile cast iron) | D = 700mm, L = 1540m |
| max. electric power output (Pe) | 1650 kW (before 600kW) |
| efficiency at design discharge | 82% (including head losses of penstock) |
| machinery | vertical shaft Pelton turbine with 5 nozzles |
| synchroneous generator 1000 rpm, 2100 kVA | |
| expected power generation | |
| per year | 7.7 GWh |
| summer period (April to September) | 6,0 GWh |
| winter period (October to March) | 1,7 GWh |