Bieudron power station is running again

After 9 years of shutdown, Bieudron power station is running again.

During that time, 100 engineers and specialists from HYDRO Exploitation, under the supervision of a project manager, worked tirelessly to recommission this 1200 MW power station, holder of three world records:

• head (1883 m)
• power per Pelton turbine (3 x 423 MW)
• power per generator pole (35.7 MVA)

In parallel with the lining of the pressure shaft, carried out by CDC, HYDRO Exploitation specialists worked with two external engineers, as well as suppliers (Andritz, Alstom, ABB, …) for commissioning. The main steps were :

• maintenance and updating of the installations until the end of 2008
• preliminary testing from the beginning until the summer of 2009
• wet commissioning of the headwater gallery and well at the end of August 2009
• commissioning of the three units with a 15 day interval, and during an intermediary phase with the parallel commissioning of two groups
• parallel running of the three groups with behavior testing of the new well from the 1st December 2009

Since January 2010, the centre has been in full production again. Final tests have been carried out to control the behaviour of full load installations. Since then, the HYDRO Exploitation engineers have handed over the work to our “Exploitation” department which ensures the management and maintenance of this development.

Particularity

Ensuring the recommissioning of an almost new plant (2 years of running time) after nine years of shut down is a first! During that period of time, HYDRO Exploitation had put measures in place to ensure optimal conservation of the machines.