core sector communique

ANDRITZ receives another major order for pumped storage power station in Portugal

Graz/Vienna, November 25, 2011.  EDP – Gestão da Produção de Energia, S.A., has awarded the consortium ANDRITZ HYDRO (leader of the consortium), EFACEC Engenharia, and SMM-Sociedade de Montagens Metalomecânicas an order for the supply and erection of the complete electromechanical equipment for the pumped storage project Foz Tua.

The contract includes two reversible pump turbines of 120 MW each, cylindrical gates, motor generators, governors and control systems, hydro mechanical equipment, and a large scope of auxiliary systems. An important factor for the success was the close cooperation with two reputable Portuguese companies in order to reach a substantial local content within the consortium.

The pumped storage station will be erected on the river Tua, a tributary of the Douro River in the north of Portugal, and is part of the ambitious EDP expansion program to boost power generation from renewable sources, with a special emphasis on wind and hydro power.

With this order, ANDRITZ HYDRO strengthens its leading position in Portugal, which presently is one of the most active new pumped storage markets in Europe. It is the fourth major order within four years which EDP has awarded to consortia led by ANDRITZ HYDRO. Altogether these contracts add up to ten turbine generator units of various types and sizes, with a predominance of low head pump turbines, a product in which ANDRITZ HYDRO has extensive experience and know-how, also due to the successful projects in Portugal.

The Francis unit for the extension of the Bemposta power station with an output of 193 MW and a runner diameter of 6 m, which was awarded to ANDRITZ HYDRO in 2008 and is one of the largest turbine generator sets of this type in Western Europe, has recently been commissioned and is already supplying clean power to the Portuguese grid.