GHE has been supplying the equipment for an extensive cascade project in the valley of the River Uz in the Szeker Land region. A total of 15 turbines  were delivered to the valley in the north-east of Transylvania.

The work on the Uz power plant project in Romania’s Szeker Land region has extended over around three years. 300 workers were employed during this period in order to establish the structural foundations for a cascade plant comprising a total of 6 machine exchanges with 15 sets of machines. The power plant project on the River Uz in the valley of the same name, which is backed by the Hungarian-Romanian Hivatalos Srl. investor consortium, is regarded as an important step in the expansion of the hydroelectric power resources in the region. The rumoured level of investment is around 15 million euros.

GREAT LOGISTICAL EFFORT IN A REMOTE REGION
The project is now already in the final phase. Since the end of January, the assembly work has been in full swing despite all the adverse weather conditions. The assembly team from the commissioned turbine supplier GHE is stretched to the limit here. “Our team has faced a number of challenges during the final assembly process. Primarily this involved the great logistical effort required due to the extensive equipment that is needed to get 15 turbines up and running at almost the same time. Another factor was the remoteness and difficult access to the valley, which meant that GHE demonstrated its flexibility again and again during the course of the project,” explains GHE project manager, engineer Rainer Pühringer.

30 GWH OF CLEAN ELECTRICITY
In total, the hydroelectric power specialist from Upper Austria is supplying 14 Francis turbines and one Pelton turbine for the six power plants in the cascade system. The gradients used, which extend over a length of around 15 kilometres, display differences in height of between 48 and 99.8 m. The power output data from the machines used is equally different: The output capacities of the turbines supplied by GHE are between 328 kW and 630 kW. The final mechanical assembly has now progressed to such an extent that the first start-up should be possible in just a few weeks. Ultimately, the intention is that the power plant cascade on the Uz should be fully up and running before the start of the summer. In a normal year, it will provide around 30 GWh of electricity produced from clean hydro power for the Szeker Land region. In any event, for the commissioned hydroelectric power specialists from Upper Austria, this once again demonstrates expertise in the emerging hydroelectric power market in Romania.