British Columbia Hydro (BC Hydro) has awarded a contract to Voith Hydro of Montreal, Quebec to completely overhaul five Francis turbine units for the Gordon M Shrum hydro power plant, which is located near Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia. This marks the largest turbine replacement project awarded by BC Hydro to date.
BC Hydro made the decision following a competitive model test at the facilities of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Voith Hydro will supply five new 310-megawatt turbines and manage site construction, installation and start-up.
The first unit is scheduled for replacement in 2012. One unit will be replaced per year until all new units are in service in early 2017.
Once the overhaul is complete, the rated output of each turbine will grow from 266 to 310 megawatts. This translates to 177 gigawatt hours of electricity generation—enough to power 15,000 homes.
The turbine units of the Gordon M Shrum plant were put into operation in the late 1960s. They represent 12 percent of BC Hydro’s power production capacity.
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