MAGAZINE FoR HYDRO POWER TECHNOLOGY

Hypower
HyPower#1 | 2012#21| Autumn 2012

the growing importance of pumped storagebalance
Lorem
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of
power
AMET cursus mauris sit ametmauris sit ametconsequat vitae
realizing potential worldwide
manufacturing expertise

AMET cursus

Vivamus elementum semper SIT
more power through modernization
green energy mix

Imprint
Publisher:
Voith Hydro Holding GmbH & Co. KG
Alexanderstr. 1189522 Heidenheim, Germany
www.voith.com
Editor: Ute Böhringer-Mai
Editorial coordination: Vesna Stirnadel
Tel: +49 7321 37 0
Fax: +49 7321 37-7828
Email: info.voithhydro@voith.com
In cooperation with:
Burda Creative Group GmbHwww.burda-creative-group.de
Paper:
HyPower is printed on Respecta Silk.
This paper consists of 60% recycled
fiber and was produced on a Voith paper
machine.
Photographs:
Cover: Peter Beavis/Gallerystock.com;
p. 6: AES Tietê; p. 7: Paul Kuehnel/York(Pa.) Daily Record; p. 10: MaxDa Goodman/flickr; p. 11: Stian Eisenträger/flickr;
p. 17: gettyimages; p. 23: plainpicture;p. 24: Jim Wark/AGStock USA/Gruppe28;
p. 28: dsmithatdavinci/flickr; p. 29: photoshot; p. 33: Paulo Fridman; p. 34: Prisma/
Universal Images Group; p. 39: istockphoto,
all other photos are from Voith Hydro.
Copyright:
No part of this publication may be copied,
reproduced or otherwise disseminated,
nor may any of the content in it be used inpart or in whole in other works in any
form whatsoever, without express written
permission of the editor.

Platzhalter

editorial

TEAMING UP FOR A
SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Tremendous amounts of electricity are needed to power
economic growth and development around the world. Delivering that energy in a way that is both reliable and sustainable isa task that cannot be accomplished in isolation. It requires
highly productive teamwork across borders.
Within Voith Hydro, international cooperation is a core
principle. Successfully managing the full range of products
and services in order to provide global excellence requires
intensive, intercultural teamwork. In this issue of HyPower you
will find out more about how working hand-in-hand makes it
possible to ensure consistency and provide local expertise ina global context – from Brazil to China and beyond.
Above all, however, effective cooperation means listening
to and working with our valued customers and partners.
Through phases of hydro power site planning, construction,
operation, services or modernization, we view plant operatorsand other stakeholders involved as long-term partners withwhom we share a common future – a future in which hydropower will be indispensable because of its essential contribution to limiting global warming and to reaching ambitious climate-protection goals.
Looking beyond hydro power, we see a strong need forcooperation within the renewable energy mix. One example ispumped storage, which can contribute significantly to the further growth of wind and solar power plants by acting as a“battery,” thus providing necessary grid stability.
In this issue, we hope that you will gain valuable insight
into how cooperation is delivering benefits around the world.
Enjoy the read!

Yours sincerely,

Ute Böhringer-Mai
Head of Communications

HyPower 2012 | 3

contents

14

18

AGENDA SETTING

8

DEVELOPING FUTURE
PROSPECTS
CEO Dr. Roland Münch on theimportance of hydro power forstable green energy supply.

Discover more
about the worldof Voith in its
other insightful
publications.

17 moving the masses
Providing reliable electricity for
Germany’s rail network.

global expertise

18	the people factor
full-line supplier

10	vital source
Norway’s wide spectrum of services.

Voith Hydro’s manufacturingexpertise knows no borders.

23 mutual benefit
International management expert
Robert Moran on diversity.

12	supplying demand
Voith Hydro’s capabilities as awater-to-wire service provider.

24	river of opportunities

REGULARS
successful partnerships

2	imprint
3	editorial
6 what’s new
37 bigger picture
38 	guest perspective
4 | HyPower 2012

green energy mix

14 where the weather
sets the rules
How the Arctic challenged a teamof workers from 13 countries.

Converting dams to generate
electricity in the United States.

26	untapped potential
The importance of hydro powerin India’s rapid growth.

contents

26

29

34

28 same footprint,
more output
How renovation can extract morefrom existing hydro plants.

29 wind and water
working as one
Pumped storage and windenergy working as one.

excellence

33	A splash of green
Bringing power to Brazil.

34 breaking new groundPushing the boundaries ofgenerator technology.
DIRECTORY

36 maintaining excellence
The importance of good service.

39	around the world
An easy-to-check reference of the Voith Hydro
projects mentioned in this edition of HyPower.

HyPower 2012 | 5

what’s new

breaking new ground in modernization
brazil Voith Hydro Brazil recently signed a contract with AESTietê for the modernization of Água Vermelha (also called
José Ermírio de Moraes), located on the Grande River, on theborder between the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.
The order value for the company totals around €80 million.
The Água Vermelha plant houses six large-scale generating
units amounting to a total rated capacity of 1,396 MW. Voith’s
6 | HyPower 2012

modernization work will comprise an overhaul of the turbinesand gates, and the repair of the generators, as well as all other associated electromechanical systems. Many of them will
be completely renewed. The contract for Água Vermelha represents one of the largest modernization contracts ever tendered in Brazil, and it is the largest ever to be undertaken bya single company. //what’s new

best-in-class in brazil
brazil As recognition for its continued excellence, Voith Hydro Brazil recently

picked up two important awards. The company was chosen as market leader inBrazil’s capital-goods sector by Exame magazine, one of the country’s mostimportant business media publications. A total of 3,500 companies were assessed for the report’s 18 business sectors, placing Voith Hydro firmly among
Brazil’s leading performers. It is “an acknowledgement of our commitment toBrazil,” says Osvaldo San Martin, President and CEO of Voith Hydro Brazil.
In the inaugural edition of the Época NEGÓCIOS 360º yearbook, Voith
Hydro Brazil picked up another award, this time as best company in the mechanical and metalworking category. In addition to financial results, the ranking
was made according tofactors such as corporate
governance, social andenvironmental responsibility, and vision for the
future. “Our management
model and results have
Voith Hydro
made us stand out in theemployees
market,” sums up a decelebrate.
lighted San Martin. //strengthening bonds
germany Governor Mo Fuchun led a recent visit to Voith Hydro headquar-ters in Heidenheim by the Minhang District government, part of the Chinese
metropolis of Shanghai. During the visit, Voith Hydro CEO Dr. Roland Münch
introduced the company’s history, technology and future development
plans in China. Mo expressed his thanks to the contributions that Voith
Hydro Shanghai has made to the economic development of Minhang. “Minhang District government has always been committed to providing a business-friendly environment. We will continue to do our best to support thedevelopment of Voith in Minhang.” //milestone reachedunited states 2012 represents the135th anniversary of hydro power inYork, Pennsylvania, home of Voith’s
North American headquarters. A celebration was held at the Voith facility,with employees and their families, customers and special guests, including
Governor Tom Corbett (pictured above)
and Todd Platts, a local congressman,all of whom who came to congratulate
and recognize 135 years of hydro power“made in America.” They focused on theimportance of the hydro power industry
for the region, with Corbett explainingthat “it isn’t just powering our homes
and businesses, it’s also powering our
economy, our recovery and our prosperity, too.”It was back in 1877 that Stephen
Morgan Smith originally began designing and manufacturing hydraulic turbines in the area. Members of the Voith
family would travel over from Germany
by steamship to visit the facility, before
Voith eventually acquired the location in1986. At the end of the 19th century 20
people worked at the facility, but it now
employs more than 500, and supplies afull range of hydro power equipment
and services to the United States andbeyond. “Voith will continue to provide
the equipment that generates the renewable energy to power America anddrives economic growth for its people,”
said the Voith Hydro President andCEO, Kevin Frank. //The Chinese delegation together with Voith Hydro management in Heidenheim.
HyPower 2012 | 7

agenda setting

Developing
future prospects
Within the set of renewables, onlyhydropower can provide the stability
needed to supply modern industries
with constant electricity. However,the structures required must be
further developed. Voith Hydro CEO
Dr. Roland Münch on the future
prospects for hydro.

The financial year just closing was another successfulhydro year for Voith. What were your personal highlights?
After a weaker order intake for us in Asia, we have revived thepotential in this region. Voith Hydro was able to obtain new,large-scale projects in both India and China. In Brazil, where
our focus has been on new projects for many years, we are
now pursuing more and more modernization work. After decades of operation, many power companies are now upgrading their fleets – a similar trend to the one we saw in the United States 20 years ago. Talking about Europe we wereparticularly successful in the Eastern European market and in
Russia. Providing reliable and sufficient renewable power solutions is a key topic.
What developments have you seen recently in the market?
While we are working on a number of very large, complex
projects in our workshops, we are simultaneously seeing an
increased trend toward decentralized solutions. This is especially evident in the small hydro segment, where more andmore private operators and investors are seizing the initiative.

“In Brazil, where our
focus has been on new
projects, we are now
pursuing more and morework in modernization.”

8 | HyPower 2012

What do you think this means for the future of the industry?
For me it’s very clear that hydro power – being a proven, mature technology – continues to play an important part in the
future renewable energy mix. It has a lot of untapped potential. Take small hydro for example: Voith Hydro specifically addressed this field and comes up with ecologically friendly solutions and new innovations that can be used to tap new
potential; potential that needs new technically feasible andcost-effective solutions like very low head locations. As a result, areas that may not have been economically viable in thepast have become attractive for power generation. In Central
Europe alone we could generate a total of 600 MW of climatefriendly power with this type of small hydro power plant.
What is driving the search for innovation in a mature technology like hydro power?
It’s a matter of slowing global warming. Climate change is oneof the most pressing problems of our time. If we want to decrease CO2 emissions, the percentage of power supplied
from renewable sources has to increase dramatically. To

SECTION“Government policies
need to promoterenewable energy
sources in a waythat allows hydropower to maximize
its contribution to
supply reliability.”

make that happen, we have to look at all possible solutions,which is where hydro power can demonstrate its versatility.
Currently, less than 15 percent of all dams around the world
are used for power generation – a sign of just how huge thepotential is from upgrading existing dams and locks alone.
The impact on the environment would be relatively low. We’reworking on the future prospects of hydro power and that’s
why we keep enhancing the technology, even though it is already very well engineered.
Can comparatively small solutions satisfy the world’s needfor energy? The International Energy Agency estimatesthat demand will increase by around 50 percent by 2030.
Precisely because of its versatility, hydro power is an essential
part of the energy mix needed for this growing demand. It isbase-loadable and can also produce operating reserve forload- or demand-related peaks. Additionally, hydro power canbe integrated in centralized as well as in decentralized power
supply structures. Part of the world’s demand for energy isdriven by numerous regions that are intently pursuing development. For many countries, electrification has been the firststep to continued economic and social development. Hydro
power is the most proven and important of the renewable en-ergy sources that are currently available. There’s no questionthat it will play a significant role in covering this increasing
global energy demand.
Given these favorable prospects for hydro power, what
are the challenges facing power plant operators?
There are certainly structural considerations that must still beovercome. Approval processes for hydro power plants – and I
don’t just mean large-scale infrastructures – remain very complex and take far too long. In addition, government policies
need to promote renewable energy sources in a way that allows hydro power to maximize its contribution to supply reliability. In comparison with other energy sectors, the hydroindustry receives less support and faces more hurdles. Hydro
power is the only way to provide stability alongside the fluctuating power supply from other renewable sources; pumped
storage is the only technology with which we can store energy
in a cost-effective manner on an industrial scale. However, thecommercial models available to utility companies on the market are not sufficiently developed to meet this critical function.
This issue calls for government policies and the creation of
structures that will make the power supply reliable. //HyPower 2012 | 9

full-line supplier
SectionThe picturesque sceneryalong the Glomma Riverholds one of Norway’s mostimportant power sources.

vital source
Crucial to Norway’s power supply, theGlomma River delivers more than stunningbeauty and forms the backbone to Voith
Hydro’s full spectrum of local services.

The Glomma River is thelongest in Norway and has
long been an importantsource of hydro power anda means of transport.
10 | HyPower 2012T

he plunging waterfalls and turbulent rapids of the Glomma River
as it rushes down mountains andthrough forests are the spectacular
backdrop to Voith Hydro’s operationsin Norway.
Harnessing the power of the Glomma River is vital to the region’s energy
needs: almost all of Norway’s electricity
is generated by hydro power plants, andmany of these plants are located along
the river’s almost 600-kilometer journeyto the sea.
At over 30,000 MW, Norway is thesixth-biggest market in the world interms of hydro power capacity. In such amature marketplace the modernizationof existing systems is crucial. “It isfull-line supplier
SECTION

Efficiency gains can make modernization worthwhile more than once in a plant’s lifetime.

our main focus,” explains Dr. Gerhard
Blaschitz, Managing Director of Voith
Hydro in Norway. “The majority ofplants here are 50 years old.”Some are even older: the company’s
relationship with the longest river in
Scandinavia began nearly a century ago
when it supplied three turbines to theoriginal Rånåsfoss plant on the Glomma
in the early 1920s. This sort of commitment means a great deal to Akershus
Energi, which runs Rånåsfoss and cameback to Voith when it decided to build acompletely new plant on the site.
Voith is now delivering six complete
new vertical propeller turbines, generators, power house crane, switchgear andcontrol systems, which will be the heartbeat of the new Rånåsfoss III. “This is acontinuation of a unique relationshipthat’s lasted 90 years,” laughs Bjørn
Dag Gundersen, information director at
Akershus. “It’s been a good relationship– that’s why we re-hired them!”

At Rånåsfoss II, on the other side of the
Glomma, Voith modernized the control
system and switchgear equipment for a
Kaplan unit earlier this year. “To build a
new power plant is very expensive, so it
is very important that they last as long as
possible,” points out Gundersen.
“Modernization can extend a plant’s
lifetime by up to 50 years and can bedone not once, but several times,” says
Blaschitz. It’s a service that Jan Øystein
Rafoss at E-Co Energi also appreciates.
His company manages one of the biggest plants on the Glomma, at 215 MW.
“New turbine runners with better design, new transformers and control systems that optimize the running of theturbines can increase efficiency.”
Between 1999 and 2003, Voith delivered new turbine governors to Solbergfoss I, as well as flow controllers for
all machines and gates, while in 2009 it
supplied and installed new control systems, updated switchgear equipment

and provided a new turbine governor
for Solbergfoss II.
Having a world leader in full-line hydropower solutions handling such work is
crucial, Rafoss believes. “It gives me afeeling of security – I know I will
receive solid, technical solutions andthat I always have the necessary help
when needed.”
Blaschitz is gratified to hear it.
“Voith’s scope and expertise means customers get their solution from one company, which is taking full responsibility,”
the Austrian says. In Norway’s liberalized energy market, electricity fromhydro power operations on the Glomma
could be used almost anywhere, and heis convinced that ongoing modernization can help increase capabilities.
“There is some potential for creating
additional capacity – we can find room
for improvement,” he concludes. “We
can do more.” //HyPower 2012 | 11

full-line supplierSupplying demand
Three recent projects highlight Voith Hydro’s expertise asa turnkey supplier of a comprehensive range of services.

W

ith its twofold roots – basedon the long-term expertise ofboth Voith and Siemens –Voith Hydro can look back on over 100
years of know-how and experience inthe turbine and generator business. Inview of this DNA, the company has positioned itself as a true full-line supplierfor hydro power plants since the jointventure a little over a decade ago.
Three recent projects – two in Turkey and one in Guatemala – tell the story of Voith Hydro as a water-to-wireprovider of small and large hydro power
plants on two continents. They also
show the company’s ability to customengineer equipment for individual
plants and its skill in managing largescale projects with thousands of details.
That expertise can be useful for handling the surprise challenges that canarise, such as having a construction roadin the Guatemalan jungle blocked formonths at a time.
As the general contractor for thethree projects, Voith Hydro took over
the job of coordinating and managing
suppliers and vendors that provided
non-core parts; meanwhile, Voith kept
its focus on engineering and those components which are based on the firm’sknowledge.
“Twenty years ago, it was common
practice for energy companies to buy
systems from different suppliers andtake responsibility themselves forcompatibility and functioning,” clarifies
12 | HyPower 2012

Murat Cetinkaya, project manager at
the Akköprü plant located in southwest
Anatolia, Turkey. “But that requires
much expertise and coordination. Now,
many energy companies seek turnkey
suppliers.”
The Akköprü project, started in
2002, was among the company’s first
turnkey projects. The plant there now
supplies vacation regions like Antalya
and Marmaris with 120 MW of power.
Voith Hydro was completely responsible for engineering the power plant, including mechanical, electrical and automation systems. It also oversaw theassembly and commissioning.
“We handed our client a full electricity-producing power plant,” comments Cetinkaya. “By using us as a turnkey partner, the power company met its
production goals faster and spared itself
the job of coordinating a dozen contractors. One contract with one sub-supplier simplified everything.”
Turkey’s Ministry of Energy andNatural Resources decided to build the
Akköprü dam and hydroelectric power
plant in order to protect from flooding,provide irrigation and produce renewable energy.
The country’s water authority, DSI,
entrusted the Austrian Division of Voith
Hydro, Voith Hydro St. Pölten, with thejob of supplying the power plant. It included delivering two Francis turbines,
each with 59.3 MW, governors, two generators, excitation systems, the protec-

tion system, main butterfly valves, theautomation system, main transformers,
controlling units and the switch yard.
Turnkey services with custom engineering were also the focus of anotherproject performed by Voith Hydro inTurkey. Some 1,400 kilometers to thenortheast of the Akköprü site, near Turkey’s Black Sea coast, Voith has installed
the Akköy I and Akköy II plants for Akköy Enerji, a private Turkish investor.
The Akköy II order for a 234 MW
plant encompassed all of the required
electromechanical equipment. This included two Pelton turbines using a
1,220-meter water head – which makes
the project the highest-head Pelton application in Turkey.

Akköy Enerji’s plant is thehighest-head Pelton
application in Turkey.

Jungle power: with an overall capacity of 86 MW, the hydro power
plant in Palo Viejo will avert 280,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

“The combination of a high headand high rotation speed makes the design sophisticated, especially for the rotating parts like the generator rotor andthe bearings. In addition, the high efficiency of the turbine was an exciting
challenge for our hydraulic engineers,”
explains Harald Fohleitner, the Voith
project manager.
The order came after that for the
103 MW Akköy I plant, which has three
Francis turbines and was handed over in2008. Voith was named the head of the
Akköy II consortium in September 2008,
and Akköy II was handed over to thecustomer in mid-2012.
In Central America, project management skills complemented the engineer-ing expertise needed for Voith Hydro’s
work in Palo Viejo, Guatemala. At a site
nestled some 300 kilometers into the
Guatemalan jungle, Enel America Latina S.A. decided to build a hydroelectricity plant with two vertical Francis turbines and generators that produce a
maximum of 86 MW of power.
The Italian company contractedwith Voith Hydro São Paulo, Brazil, fora turnkey project at the Palo Viejo site.
In addition to project management, engineering, transportation, erection,commissioning and training, Voith
Hydro also delivered two 370-meterhead power units, two spherical valves,
two step-up transformers, the automation system and further electrical andmechanical ancillary equipment.

The main challenges facing thisproject were the tight timeline andtransportation of materials to the construction site on a road that had to be
especially built for that purpose, says
Leonardo Colombini, the Voith project
manager.
“We exceeded customer expectations regarding the operation runabilityof the plant,” comments Colombini.
The Palo Viejo plant was handed
over to the customer in May 2012. “As awhole, the project allowed Voith toshow our engineering reliability andour creativity in project management,”
Colombini concludes. //HyPower 2012 | 13

successful partnerships

1

1
Located on Greenland’s west coast,
Sisimiut has a thriving fishing industry andis a growing industrial center.
2
The demanding terrain made equipment
delivery particularly challenging.
3
Extreme weather conditions limited accessto the town and meant the power plant project
had to run according to a tight schedule.

2
3

14 | HyPower 2012

successful partnerships

Where the weather
sets the rules
From freezing temperatures to swarms of mosquitoes– the Arctic challenged a construction team made up
of workers from 13 countries.

S

ome 100 km north of the polar
circle, on a fjord on Greenland’s
western coast, a new hydro power plant is bringing electricity to thetown of Sisimiut, one of Greenland’s
fastest-growing communities.
Constructing the plant there was no
easy feat: the site has no road access, andice blocks sea transport from late November to the beginning of June.
Istak, a construction company thatworks closely with Kössler, the Voith
Hydro subsidiary in Austria specialized
in small power plants, managed the construction of the plant, which began in
2007. During the three-year project,Guðmundur Þórðarson, Istak’s project
manager on site, not only faced -35ºC
temperatures and logistical challenges,
but also swarms of mosquitoes so bad
you could hardly go outside, emergency
medical evacuations and a fire that brokeout at 5:00 a.m. “It didn’t take us longto figure out that we not only had tobuild the plant in this difficult location,
but we also had to be our own doctors,social workers and firefighters,” reportsÞórðarson.
Nukissiorfiit, a government-owned
energy company in Greenland, asked
Istak and a consortium of its partners tobuild the hydroelectric plant underground to protect it from the harshclimate. The plant was needed as areplacement for diesel-powered generators that were nearing the end of theirlife cycles. Denmark, which administers
Greenland, has embraced renewable energy in cooperation with the island’s
government and was therefore keen to
avoid putting in more generators thatrun on fossil fuels. The new hydro power plant – which saves 6.5 million litersof diesel a year – can produce 58 GWhof electricity a year.
Kössler supplied key technology forthe hydro power plant, including two
7.5 MW Francis turbines and genera-“It didn’t take us long to figure out that we
not only had to build the plant in this difficult
location, but we also had to be our own
doctors, social workers and firefighters.”
Site manager Guðmundur Þórðarson.

tors, the main inlet valves, the hydraulicpower unit, cooling system, turbine
control systems and spare parts, says
Karl Henninger, who works in sales atKössler and was involved in the project.
Kössler designed the equipment to meet
special requirements for the regulated
units and the control system, since theplant needed to handle variable loads inshort times to guarantee a stable, isolated grid. The Austrian company also delivered parts that were packed seaworthy to Aalborg, Denmark; from there,
Istak took over the task of moving
equipment to Greenland.
For Þórðarson, managing the project
was a constant battle with the calendar.
“We had a tight schedule due to the climate. Many of our decisions were driven by weather.”
In June of 2007, Þórðarson’s teamreceived its first shipment of construction equipment, including excavatorsand containers. About a year later, thefirst Kössler equipment arrived – steel
pipes for the waterway from the turbine.
“We had a landing craft barge thattransported items from Sisimiut’s harbor to the site. It was the kind of barge
you could use for armory,” he recounts.
The spirals of the Francis turbines
were set for delivery in October 2008.
However, extreme weather conditions
made things difficult by covering thespirals with snow during transport into
the cavern.
HyPower 2012 | 15

successful partnerships

1

2
3

1
A view inside the powerhouse of Sisimiut with its twogenerating units.
2
One of the two 7.5 MW
Francis turbines is taken into
the access tunnel.
3	The project team prepared
for two years to receive theturbines and generators.

In 2009, the two Kössler-provided generators, manufactured by LDW in Bremen, arrived, each weighing 30 tons.
“We had been working there for two
years, preparing everything for the turbines and generators,” says Þórðarson.
“The generators were put on a trailer in
Sisimiut using harbor equipment.
Workers moved the trailer onto thelanding craft barge and sailed to theconstruction site at the so-called ‘Second Fjord,’ or ‘Kangerluarsuk Ungalleq,’ where the trailer was rolled off
the barge and into the powerhouse. We
used the overhead crane in the powerhouse to lift the generators from thetrailer and lower them down to their final position,” the Icelander says.

“You can’t just pick up the phoneand call for service. If you havea problem, you’ve got to fix it.”Guðmundur Þórðarson.
16 | HyPower 2012

A team of up to 120 people from 13
countries worked on the construction atpeak times. It was a project that tested
the team’s management flexibility andingenuity, says Þórðarson. “You can’t
just pick up the phone and call for service. If you have a problem, you’ve got
to fix it. You’ve got to have spare partson hand and solutions for problems.”
The work also tested Þórðarson andhis team in ways they hadn’t expected,
like being asked to organize an urgent
sea ambulance transport for a local resident who fell sick, or fighting the blazeof a fire that engulfed the camp’s diesel
generator in the early hours of themorning. Despite the various setbacks,
the site manager and his team commissioned all the equipment and provided
the residents with the power they needed for the winter of 2009 – six months
ahead of the planned completion date.
Such was the success of the projectthat shortly after the Sisimiut plant was
in operation, Istak contracted with
Kössler again to build the Ilulissat plant,
further north on Greenland’s western
coast. It is to be taken into operation inpart in late 2012. //successful partnerships

moving the masses
Hydro power is a vital contributor
to a special network that generates
electricity for Germany’s rail system.

Deutsche Bahn is the single largest consumer of electricity inGermany and requires its own special network.

The next time you’re about to get on a long-distancetrain, look up. The chances are that your train is poweredby electricity supplied by overhead lines, but the story of
how the electricity got there in the first place is not a simple
one. And trains need a lot of power.
Deutsche Bahn is the single largest consumer of electricity in Germany – in 2009, 10.9 terawatt-hours – but thispower does not come from the same system that runs ourTVs and lights our homes. For a number of technical andhistorical reasons, the German rail system uses a lower frequency of electricity than the normal consumer network:
16.7 Hz, instead of 50 Hz. This means that the rail systemneeds its own network, with its own generating power stations as well as its own cable and transformer system, andjust like its big brother, the pressure is on this network toembrace green energy.
Increasing the proportion of renewable electricity in a network is not quite as simple as building new wind, hydro andsolar facilities, however. Unlike coal or nuclear, which candeliver energy consistently and around the clock, the powerfrom wind and solar facilities is intermittent and highly dependent on the elements. An additional challenge in thespecial rail network is the extremely varied and unpredictable consumption profile.
In order to level off this fluctuation and make sure that
unused energy doesn’t go to waste, the network has a tried
and trusted solution: pumped-storage hydroelectricity
plants. Originally built to balance the different demands ofthe system at different times of day, stations like this canreact instantly to the constantly changing demands of the
network, to deliver energy when it’s needed and store it
when it isn’t. The pumped-storage hydroelectric station at
Langenprozelten, in the south of Germany, is the only facility of its kind in the country’s rail electricity network, and it
makes up a significant proportion of the network’s total capacity. In the 1970s, Voith equipped the plant with twopump-turbine units. Today it is the responsibility of Voith
Hydro in Heidenheim to offer best services in order to keep
the station running at full capacity and optimum efficiency
with regular inspections and maintenance, so it can makesure that the trains have the electricity they need, when theyneed it, to take us where we want to go. //HyPower 2012 | 17

Global expertise

18 | HyPower 2012

Global Cooperation:

SECTION

The
PeopleFactorAt Voith Hydro’s manufacturing operations,international cooperation is much more thanjust a corporate concept – it’s an integral partof how people do their jobs every day, as
the examples of China and Brazil illustrate.

HyPower 2012 | 19

Global expertiseThe career of Helio Moino, VicePresident for Inter-Company
Business Cooperation (ICC) andHead of the Electrical Workshop in
Shanghai, demonstrates just how Voithis driven by global knowledge-sharing.
“The company set up manufacturing activities in Brazil in 1964 and built everything up from zero, with German experts bringing their knowledge to the
locals. The process took several years
and then the first generation of Brazilian managers, of which I was one, began
to take over.”Moino was Head of Manufacturing
for Voith Hydro Brazil from 1994 to
2003, before going to China to train local managers so that they could takecharge. “It’s the same cycle all overagain, but this time I am the one transferring knowledge,” he says proudly.
“Voith Hydro Brazil is an exporterof expertise for other Voith Hydro operating units. We provide knowledgetransfer and assistance in developing
new processes,” explains Carlos Macedo,
Head of Foundry in São Paulo and Headof Health, Safety and Environment.

“It’s the same cycle all overagain, but this time I am the one
transferring knowledge.”
Brazilian Helio Moino on passing on the expertise he learned
from German colleagues to managers in China.
20 | HyPower 2012

Huang Zhengguang, Manager of the
Mechanical Workshop at Voith Hydro
Shanghai, believes that Voith’s emphasis
on international knowledge-sharing is
one of the reasons for the company’s
success in China. He says, “The Chinese hydro power market is getting
more and more competitive, but Voith
Hydro Shanghai, which models itself onother Voith operating units, continues
to stand out for its quality. To further
improve our costs and delivery times, I
will soon be going to São Paulo for
more training in boosting operational
efficiency.”
Just as Voith Hydro Brazil started fromscratch to become a benchmark in global manufacturing, Voith Hydro Shanghai is not only involved in many ofChina’s most ambitious hydro power
projects, but also exports a certain extent of its production. Voith Hydro Brazil continues to provide support: a teamfrom São Paulo recently traveled to
Shanghai to train welders, and the plant
has seen a marked rise in welding quality as a result.
Sharing knowledge internationallyhas obvious benefits but requires anopen mind. Dr. Udo Wunsch, Head ofVoith Hydro Holding’s international
production division, explains the routine of knowledge-sharing: “All Heads
of Manufacturing worldwide meet on aregular basis to discuss recent experience from their projects. Between thesemeetings they form a network and permanently discuss upcoming questions
and issues bridging the geographicaldistance. On an operational level all special-matter experts are cross-linked andGlobal expertise

can address particular technologicalquestions directly to the according specialist.”
Edson Rofino is Manager of Voith
Hydro’s Electrical Workshop in São
Paulo. He worked for two years at Voith
Hydro Shanghai and is in regular contact with the unit there, and knows
about the effectiveness of keeping intouch that way: “As you exchange ideas
with your colleagues in other countries,
you realize there may be more than one
way to arrive at the same goal. The São
Paulo and Shanghai workshops shareexperiences and support each other. We
have the same equipment and processes
and follow the same guidelines set by
the Voith Hydro Engineering Center(VHEC) in Heidenheim. We work as a
successful team, and the VHEC is thebridge.”Combining industry-leading expertise with local knowledge has helped togive Voith Hydro a competitive edge inmany markets, says Gert Roetter, nowadays Head of Manufacturing in São
Paulo. He started his career in Brazil
and later was with Voith Hydro in Germany before moving to his current posi-tion. The approach certainly works.
Voith Hydro Brazil was named thecountry’s best company in the capitalgoods sector this year.
Fostering international cooperation
has become part of Voith’s corporate
culture. Voith is focused on promoting
global exchanges, not just between Germany and other markets, but also among
all Voith operations located around theworld.

An open mindset and willingness to learn from colleagues
around the world, regardless ofage or gender, is giving Voith
Hydro a competitive advantage.

Maintaining the same high standards inall its plants while simultaneously building up its worldwide network is a core
principle. “Already some time ago wehave started to harmonize the processes,organization, equipment and infrastructure of all our factories,” says Dr. Udo
Wunsch. “My team and I travel regularly to each of the workshops, thus granting the cross-link on a corporate level.”
Another aspect is education. It has
been crucial to the success of Voith
Hydro’s operation in Manaus, set up in2010 to serve northern Brazil’s hugehydro projects. General Manager Leonardo Nuzzi, explains that the Manaus labor market is quite different from thatof São Paulo 3,900 kilometers away.
HyPower 2012 | 21

Global expertise“As you exchange ideas …
you realize there may be more than
one way to arrive at the same goal.”
Edson Rofino, Manager of Voith Hydro’s Electrical Workshop
in São Paulo, who spent two years in China

Bringing women into a maledominated environment has
already proven successful
both in Brazilian and in Chinese
heavy industry.

Trainers from São Paulo do more thanteach new skills, he says: “We are instilling new attitudes.”In its drive to build up a cohesive network of skilled, highly motivated people
working in very different places, Voith
makes sure that its managers get plentyof chances for face-to-face interactions
with their global counterparts. Heads ofVoith Hydro workshops around theworld meet twice a year, and many managers regularly visit plants in othercountries.
Débora Trevisan, Voith Hydro’s
Human-Resources Director for Latin
America, believes that flexible, international cooperation fosters a competitive
advantage. She points to the decision toemploy female precision-welders at thecompany’s plants in Brazil as one example of the benefits of being open to new
ideas: “Bringing women into a maledominated environment, especially one
filled with noise and extreme heat andsmoke like a foundry, was not an obvious choice, but women are good at precision work and concentrating on thetask at hand.” After the successful experiment in São Paulo, female welders are

22 | HyPower 2012

now working for Voith Hydro in
Manaus and a female instructor trains
welders at Voith Hydro Shanghai.
Voith’s emphasis on global knowledge-exchange is a win-win for everyone involved. “Close cooperation
among people in different markets allows us to learn right away about innovations throughout the Voith network
and adapt them to our own circumstances,” Moino says. The São Paulo
operation was the benchmark when
Voith set up the plant in Shanghai, but
after a while the responsibles from Brazil realized that the Chinese had many
good ideas about how to do things. As
they used the Brazilian ideas in China,
the Brazilian colleagues started using
some of theirs in their own workshops.
They learned from each other, and thewhole company benefited. Expertise has
no borders. //global expertise

Cooperation is less about
being right and more
about being open to newperspectives.

Mutual benefit
Robert Moran, professor emeritus of international
management at the US Thunderbird School of Global
Management, discusses successful global cooperation.
What is the key to successful international teamwork?
Partnerships or cooperations work when both sides work tocreate a future together. They fail when one side or both areattempting to “win” and impose their perspective on the otherside. Entering an international cooperation with a global mindset is key. Itmeans understanding that there are different perspectives and that both sides
want to make and create a partnershipthat will work for them. It also means
understanding that not everyone is thesame, working to understand differences and being prepared to move forward
to a mutually beneficial future.
How easy is that to do?
The primary challenge is that many people don’t have a very
global mindset – when negotiation gets stressful and things
don’t go to plan I’ve often seen a tendency to become entrenched in the “we are right” belief as opposed to looking atdifferent perspectives and looking at ways to find a solution.

What skills are required?
It takes a range of skills in order to prevent this from happening. In building these partnerships, it is so important to takecare in selecting the key team members who will be managing
this partnership or negotiating a partnership. These key people have to have
Professor emeritus
a curiosity about – and a willingness toat the United Statesgenuinely listen to – the other perspecThunderbird School
tive. They must recognize that howeverof Global Management, Moran has
careful the preparation might be, newstudied the creation
things may come out that will alter theirand outcome ofperspective. These characteristics
large-scale global
projects as an acasound soft and fluffy but they are in fact
demic and in indusimportant qualities. Often, very smart,
try for over 40 years.
technically sophisticated individuals,
when they are under pressure andstress, fall back on behaviors that don’t work.
How important is diversity?
Ultimately, I think it’s very important. It’s where different ideas
come from.
HyPower 2012 | 23

GREEN ENERGY MIX

RIVER OFOPPORTUNITIESConverting some of the country’s dams togenerate electricity is helping the United States
realize its huge hydro power potential.

24 | HyPower
H yPower 2012

green energy mix

1
2

3
4

Hydro power is available in all parts of the United States,
and it is already providing some 30 million American households with clean and affordable energy. Still, the full potentialof American hydro power remains largely untapped.
There are approximately 80,000 dams in the U.S. that do
not produce power. A study by the National Hydropower
Association (NHA) found that with the right policies in place,the United States, by maximizing these non-powered dams
and existing hydropower infrastructure could add up to
60,000 MW to the nation’s grid.
Four new projects on the Ohio River represent the latest
effort to realize this potential. For these, American Municipal
Power chose Voith Hydro to supply four new hydroelectric
plants at existing locks in Willow Island, West Virginia, Cannelton, Indiana, and Meldahl (51 percent owned by the city ofHamilton) and Smithland, both in Kentucky.
Once completed, in 2014-15, the plants will have a total
expected capacity of 313 MW. Each project will additionallyemploy 200-400 people during the construction stage – awelcome figure in these areas, where unemployment rates areabove the national average.
According to Hugo Carle, a project manager for Voith
Hydro on the Ohio River projects, using existing dams to generate climate-friendly energy seems natural. “Hydro power
has its obvious benefits,” Carle says, “but the biggest is that
we can avoid an impact on the environment.”
He explains that it is incredibly rewarding to be involved inprojects that make a difference, then adds, “Not only for thecompany you work for, but also for the local community andthe environment.” There is room for optimism, as the politicalclimate is currently changing in the industry’s favor: Earlier thisyear, the US House of Representatives passed the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act, following the passing of theHydropower Improvement Act by a US Senate Committee
last year. Both acts work to significantly ease and speed up
the regulatory processes for hydro-power projects.
To Carle, this means that he could be looking at more
projects. “Hydro power has a bright future,” he says. “There’s
all this potential out there, and legislation is coming, too. It’s
all really coming together these days.” //1

Smithland lock and dam, Kentucky

2Cannelton, Indiana

3

Willow Island, West Virginia

4Meldahl, Kentucky

HyPower 2012 | 25

green energy mix

Untapped
potential
A rapidly growing
population and risinglevels of affluencemean India’s energy
demand is set torise. Hydro power has
a vital role to play.

A

lready the world’s second-mostpopulous country, it is estimatedthat in 2020, 1.3 billion will live
in India. Coupled with a rise in per capita income of over 8 percent annually
over the next decade, which the country
aspires to, the government is anticipating the amount of energy needed tomeet this demand will more than double, to 512 GW.
Hydro power is well placed to increase its share in India’s total electricity
generating mix (currently around 20
percent), says Sumeet Mazumdar, Vice
President Projects and Field Services,for Voith Hydro in India, and explains:“Our hydro potential is largely untapped and presents a huge opportunity.” He adds that in a country that isconcerned about security and energy independence, the fact that “the rivers
flow all year and the energy they produce is locally generated and owned,”
gives hydro power a natural advantage.
Indians are renowned for their traditional closeness to the land, but with
development and urbanization, elec­
tricity is increasingly defining thelifestyles of the country’s growing urban
population, from their reliance on it
when commuting to work through to
how they spend their leisure time. “Indians are increasingly using mass transport systems to take them to their citycenter offices. Footfall is very high in

26 | HyPower 2012

the Delhi-Metro, and its size still is
growing,” Mazumdar says. The explosion in city-center retail and residential
development over the past decade hascoincided with a growth in expendable
income. “The middle class is rising andaspiring to own a car, an apartment andelectrical gadgets earlier than the previous generation,” explains Mazumdar.
“In an increasingly open society aspirations are bound to rise.”In these households, computers,
air-conditioning units, refrigerators,
televisions, kitchen appliances and personal communication devices will becommonplace. “Living standards willcontinue to rise, and electricity demand
will go up exponentially as a result.”
Such a scenario poses a challenge forthis ambitious country: without significant investment in energy infrastructure, it will be impossible for India toachieve its economic growth targets tosecure a better life for its citizens.
The two-day electricity blackoutthat hit the national grid in the summer
offered a worrying glimpse of the future
if India doesn’t address its energy gap.
The government’s current (12th) plan
period is to ensure that the electricity
demand-and-supply situation remains
well balanced. Mazumdar adds: “Indians
are very tolerant, but young people havemuch higher expectations and the government will have to keep pace.” //

1

2

3
4

1 India’s population is booming, and the younger generation
is more technologically savvy.
2 Demand is climbing acrossthe board as the middle classgrows and living standards rise.
3 Urbanization: India’s rural
population is increasingly moving – or commuting – to thecountry’s vibrant megacities.
4 With increasing urbanization,
consumers rely increasingly
on public transportation andelectricity. Hydro power is well
positioned to help meet India’senergy needs.

HyPower 2012 | 27

Green energy mix

Ontario Power
Generation’s
Des Joachims
StationSame footprint,
more output
Without adding to the environmental
burden, two operators are gaining theability to get more out of existing
plants by updating to leading-edge
technology.

Hydroelectric generation has been a significant part of the
global energy mix for over 100 years. While the principles ofhydro power have not changed since the first generators werebuilt, new technology and design allow modern plants to be
far more efficient than their predecessors.
As well as building new hydro power plants, Voith has
been active in upgrading, modernizing and replacing generator components in existing hydro facilities. Such investments
yield both financial and environmental benefits.
The Des Joachims Station on the Ottawa River in Ontario,
Canada, dates back to 1950. Voith was recently awarded thecontract to upgrade and modernize the stators and rotors inthree of their eight 45 MVA generators. As John Peden, Vice
President Sales and Marketing in Voith Hydro Mississauga,says, “The basic advantage in upgrading is financial return.
These units can be up-rated to higher outputs with greater
efficiency and reliability for significantly less cost than replacing them, and with little or no need for environmental impact
around the river.” Voith Hydro Mississauga, Canada, hascompleted more than 450 hydro modernization projects since
the mid-1970s and has a wealth of experience in the field.
28 | HyPower 2012The Ohio Falls Hydro Station is gaining a significant capacity boost.

Even older is the Ohio Falls Hydro Station on the Ohio River near Louisville, Kentucky, which opened in 1926. It is built
into a dam that the Army Corps of Engineers uses to help
control the river level and monitor the flow. Voith Hydro inYork, USA, is currently in the middle of an 11-year contract torefurbish all eight turbine and generator units.
An operation like this is not without its challenges, however, particularly when working in older facilities. “On the lastunit Voith disassembled at Ohio Falls,” says Brent Leib, project manager for Voith Hydro in York, “we found that a quarterof each runner blade was missing, there were large holes inthe discharge ring, the unit was out of level and the generator
stator core was not fully supported at the connection to theframe.” Following this discovery, Voith had to work closelywith the field crews and powerhouse owners to develop a
new work plan, costs and schedule for the additional work.
When the fully refurbished facility is in operation it will
have increased generating capacity from 80 to 101 MW. And
thanks to the modern machinery, the power plant owners canlook forward to reduced maintenance and repair costs overthe 50- to 60-year working life span of the new units, all at no
additional impact to the environment. //Green energy mix

The Ming Tombs Reservoir near
Beijing plays a vital role in China’s
pumped-storage infrastructure.

Wind and water
working as one
Voith is committed to further developing pumped-storage
systems as a crucial technology partnership for stabilizing
the inherently variable supply of wind energy.

P

umped storage is emerging as the
backbone of infrastructure crucial
to the transition from nuclear andfossil fuels to renewables. The attraction
lies in the load balancing that pumped
storage enables power plants to achieve:
energy is stored as water and being
pumped from a lower elevation to a elevated reservoir; when demand for electricity is high, the stored water is released through turbines, which drive anelectrical power generator – and more
electricity is sold. This stabilizes thegrid and maintains quality.

The market niche for pumped storage received a boost in the 1970s with
nuclear power plants. Excess night-timeenergy was stored for release, particularly at noon and in the evenings when
consumption surged. In those days,
pumped-storage plants (PSPs) operated
according to a fixed schedule with just a
few mode changes from generation to
consumption a day. Today’s and future
focus of PSPs lies more in interaction
with fluctuating renewable energies.
Already today, PSPs have different
modi operandi with more frequency
control and faster reaction times. This
enables them to store the excess energy
with a turnaround efficiency of up to 80
percent.
Wind energy is plentiful and now accounts for more than 2.5 percent of
HyPower 2012 | 29

green energy mix

1
2

1
The Guangzhou pumpedstorage plant is among
the world’s most technicallyadvanced.
2
The lower reservoir at
Guangzhou. Water for thesystem comes from the
nearby Liuxihe River.
3
Energy supply from windturbines is fluctuating. The ability to “store” power in PSPs is
crucial to availability.

30 | HyPower 20123

Green energy mix“Whatever is produced has to be consumed –and vice versa. The balance is crucial. Otherwise, there is the risk of costly blackouts.”
Lars Meier, Chief Engineer, Voith Hydro York

total worldwide electricity generation.
However, the supply of wind energy remains intermittent.
“Whatever is produced has to be
consumed – and vice versa,” explains
Lars Meier, Chief Engineer at Voith
Hydro York, USA. Meier is co-author ofa paper on market trends in pumped
storage that was recently crowned technical paper of the year at the Hydrovision International conference. “Thebalance is crucial, otherwise there is therisk of disturbances to the grid or costly
blackouts which can cause damage costing an average of €8 per non-produced
kilowatt-hour.”With pumped storage, wind andwater power can complement each other and help countries meet targets for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
PSPs also provide ancillary services suchas regulation energy and reserve generation. They can also shorten transmission paths, if they are located in relative
proximity to the consumer in combination with the right infrastructure.
In the race to gain a technological edge,
China is trying to avoid mistakes madeelsewhere. The country’s emphasis is on
developing renewables – mainly solar,
wind, hydro power and biogas – and onachieving a 17 percent reduction in CO2emissions alone by 2015. Driven byhuge domestic demand and vast financial resources, in 2010 every second
newly installed wind turbine was in China. The nation’s total installed hydropower capacity is expected to reach
380 GW by 2020, according to China
Research and Intelligence, a Shanghaibased market research and consulting
firm, in 2011.

State-of-the art technology, such as
the digital governor for a unit at the Shi
San Ling PSP near Beijing’s Ming
Tombs, is being deployed. Commissioned this April by Voith, four 200
MW reversible power units make it thelargest station in northern China. Voith
supplied four sets of pump turbines,
main inlet valves and speed governors.
Shi San Ling began operating in 1997,
and the units have since provided reliable peak load and modulated frequency as well as emergency back-up power
for the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan
region.
Commissioned in 2000, Guangzhou, in China’s southern Guangdong
province, is among the world’s mostpowerful PSPs. Voith supplied fourof its pump-turbine motor-generator
units. The plant is realized as an underground power station and provides anoverall power output of 2,400 MW.
However, the environmental andsocial issues of large-scale hydro power
projects have prompted more support
for smaller hydro power facilities. Ruralhydro power capacity is expected toreach 74 GW by 2015, according to
China’s Water Resources Ministry.

A view inside the power house of
Guangzhou

In Europe, the 70-year-plus cooperation between Voith Hydro and theVorarlberger Illwerke AG (VIW) has
reached new horizons. In 2009, a storm
brought operations at VIW’s secondlargest power station, Rodundwerk II,
in Austria, to a complete standstill.
Voith Hydro was tasked with rebuilding
and modernizing the hydroelectric
equipment.
Werner Neyer, VIW’s project manager, said that the team faced big
HyPower 2012 | 31

green energy mix“We were under extreme time pressure and had
to fit a hydroelectric generating set, whichwas 35 MVA bigger, into the existing structure.”
Werner Neyer, project manager at Vorarlberger Illwerke AG

challenges. A seven-ton pole had detached from the rotor, ruining the generator and partially damaging the turbines. Certain phases, such as getting
the dimensions of the motor generator
right, proved to be critical. “We were
under extreme time pressure and had tofit a hydroelectric generating set, whichwas 35 MVA bigger, into the existing
structure.”
It was worth the effort: Overall
output increased from 276 MW to 295
MW, and that of the generator was
raised from 310 to 345 MVA. Rodundwerk II began operating again thisFebruary. In June, Voith secured a contract for upgrading VIW’s Kops I
plant. Voith Hydro will construct, assemble and deliver three new double
Pelton turbines and regulating components, including installation.

Kops reservoir
in Austria

32 | HyPower 2012

While the driving factors behind a mixof PSPs and wind energy are variability
in consumption, the intermittent natureof wind, grid stability and frequency
management, achieving the right balance also depends on government policies. China’s 12th Five-Year Plan called
for non-fossil-fuel energy production toreach and stay above 11 percent of totalenergy production by 2015.
In OECD Europe, a total of 76
pumped-storage units capable of producing 11,562 MW have been commissioned or are in planning for the period
2011-2020. The region’s worldwide
leadership in wind power capacity is expected to be maintained until 2035,
with growth in generation from windsources averaging 6.4 percent annually.
Water and wind must continue to work
together. //Excellence

The power of water isbringing clean electricity
to South America.

A splashof green
Ferreira Gomes will bringhydroelectric power
to one of the few regionsin Brazil still reliant
on fossil-fuel plants.

Generator stator
frame including
winding

Generator rotor withshaft-coupled,which is lifted down
inside stator

Assembly of upper
thrust bracket
and its bearing

The largest electricity market in SouthAmerica, Brazil has traditionally been enthusiastic about the benefits of hydropower, which accounts for 88 percent ofelectricity fed into its national grid.
But there are what could be considered “black spots,” one of which is
the State of Amapá in the north of thecountry. Here, three-quarters of installed capacity involves generationfrom fossil fuels.
That, however, is set to changewith the development of the new Ferreira Gomes hydro plant on the AraguariRiver.
Part of the Brazilian government’s
PAC 2 Growth Acceleration Program,
the Ferreira Gomes project is strategically important and intended not only tocontribute to the economic development of the region but also to the overall efficiency of the country’s energy
system.
The project involves the construction of a low-environmental-impact reservoir of just 17.72 km2. Anticipatedbenefits include increased reliability ofsupply combined with better-quality
power for the region as a whole.

Voith Hydro has been selected as themain supplier of equipment to the project. This includes three 87 MW Kaplan
turbines, three 94 MVA generators, HVtransformers, substations and ancillarymechanicals such as ventilation, drainage and fire-containment systems. Crucially, Voith has also been entrustedwith automation of the entire plant andtraining of the operational team.
Voith’s manager for the Ferreira
Gomes project, Leonardo Colombini,notes that Voith is well positioned totake on this important task for the Brazilian government. Another Voith installed hydroelectric plant was built in
1975, some 15 km upstream of Ferreira
Gomes, at Coaracy Nunes. Voith now
has two factories in Brazil, including a
new one opened in the north of thecountry in 2010.
There is significant potential involving larger and wider rivers in northern
Brazil, he observes. This will provide
opportunities to develop new cities andneighborhoods for Brazil’s expanding
economy. Voith will be there, he says,
ready to employ the latest technologies
in hydroelectric production for the benefit of the Brazilian people. //HyPower 2012 | 33

excellence – Innovation

Breaking
new ground
At Smith Mountain, Voith is pushing the boundaries ofgenerator technology. Just one example of thecompany’s commitment to developing novel approaches
for boosting efficiency.

Smith Mountainpower plant
is located on
the Roanoke
river in Virginia,
United States.
34 | HyPower 2012

The output rating of the
new generator is thehighest ever produced
by Voith Hydro.

L

ongstanding historical problems
need innovative solutions – andthat’s exactly what we provide,”says Stanley Kocon, Vice President ofSales and Marketing at Voith Hydro’s
United States headquarters in York,
Pennsylvania.
It came as no surprise, therefore,
when American Electric Power (AEP)
approached York in spring 2011 asking
for a proposal on the uprating and rewinding of two large generator units at
its flagship Smith Mountain pump storage project near Roanoke, Virginia.

The previous year AEP engineers had
attended a symposium on hydro coils atVoith’s then recently modernized stateof-the-art manufacturing facility in Mississauga, Ontario. This had given AEP
engineers the opportunity to familiarize
themselves with Voith generator technology and to discuss design and production possibilities with its experts.
As a result Voith was included in the
RFP for Smith Mountain and ultimately
won the contract, which includes thedesign and field installation of stator
coils up-rated from their original output
of 189 MVA to 212 MVA. Attaining suchan increase required significant creative
efforts on the part of engineering, manufacturing and field operations as well as
extremely close liaison between Voith
personnel in York and in Mississauga.
The output rating is the highest everproduced by Voith utilizing a multiturncoil design and incorporates the company’s globally standardized Micalastic system to maintain Class 155 insulation. A
significant amount of leading-edge coiland generator design technology has
been integrated. The power increase isbeing achieved by expanding the size ofthe copper cross-sections – the total massof the coil is 11.1 metric tons of copper.
Voith designer Dino Slijepcevic notesthat taken together, the number of slots(567), the core length of 1.8 meters andthe bore diameter of 10.69 meters presented a large challenge.

Computerized design tools
allowed modeling of theperformance of the Smith
Mountain generator.

“On Smith Mountain it was hard toreach the desired power output within
the existing slot geometry,” explains Slijepcevic. “Using a roebel bar was not an
option in this case. So we’re putting
more material in to get more power out,
and we’re fortunate that Voith has thetools to do this.”
Design colleague Jeff Fenwick, also
involved on the Smith Mountain project, agrees. “Voith has considerable experience working on refurbishment andupgrading of other manufacturers’
equipment, often up to 100 years old,”he says. “There is never a single, standalone solution. You have to work within
existing limits, or work around themwhere possible. Each job presents its
own challenges.”
Much detailed work was required incollecting data and analyzing existing
equipment to identify the scope for improvement, because this is a non-OEM
unit for Voith, says project manager at
Mississauga, Richard DeBoo. “The customer was exceptionally helpful and the
project is a really good example of how
such a partnership can work,” he says.
This is just one of the 12 to 14 generator upgrade projects undertaken by
the Mississauga facility per year, in locations as diverse as North America,
Russia, Turkey and Sweden.

The way Voith incorporates research
activities into the generator business as awhole reflects its focus on innovation.
Thomas Hildinger, currently based inSão Paulo, Brazil, has overall responsibility for this. He explains that innovation is undertaken at two levels.
Basic research involves the company’s own researchers and often close liaison with university researchers. For example, researchers in the São Paulofacility, which specializes in insulation
technology, are currently looking into
the potential use of nanoparticles.
Alongside this, Voith’s Hydro Engineering Company (VHEC) provides theworldwide operating entities with design guidelines and technical support.
“In many respects the VHEC is a hub,”Hildinger says, “facilitating a transfer of
information, knowledge and know-how
between operating units.”
Occasionally major changes in generator technology occur. For example,
Voith is currently undertaking a leading-edge variable-speed motor generator project in Portugal. However, mostchanges are incremental improvements:“We are constantly looking at how we
can achieve greater efficiencies withfewer inputs – how we can drive efficiency for the customer.” //35 | HyPower 2012

EXCELLENCE – SERVICE

Voith Hydro Service workers
carry out generator
repairs to ensure optimum
operational performance.

MAINTAINING EXCELLENCE
Downtime is expensive, which iswhy service and maintenanceform an important part ofVoith Hydro’s product portfolio.

Service excellence is a guiding principle for Voith Hydro,
which specializes in providing a full range of services throughout a plant’s life cycle. In the United States the company recently restructured its operations in order to maximize benefits for its customers. The new Voith Hydro Services is a true
one-stop shop, offering a complete range of parts and repairs
from its headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and its
subsidiaries in Springfield, Oregon, and York, Pennsylvania.
Matthias Schumacher, Voith Hydro Holding’s Head of
After-Market Business worldwide, explains: “In the past we
had two separate service divisions in the United States, eachwith its own responsibilities. Now, we have combined thestrengths of these entities into a single provider of a full lineof services. By doing this, we can provide optimum support
for our US customers.”
36 | HyPower 2012

Wherever Voith Hydro operates, its experienced teams of
welders, machinists and engineers have the know-how, technologies and equipment it takes to come up with the mosteffective solutions for each client. Whether the job demands
design and construction, turnkey replace-in-kind, optimized
repairs or a plant’s complete rehabilitation, Voith Hydro’s customers can always count on the shortest possible downtimes
and longer-running machinery.
To make sure all its customers around the globe have access to the same high-quality services, Voith Hydro’s AfterMarket division recently prepared a service product portfolio
handbook for the company’s service centers worldwide. “Thisnew handbook is the essential and fundamental guideline forour global service organization and supports our drive to offer
a full range of customized services everywhere we operate,”
Schumacher explains.
Whatever its clients need, Voith Hydro guarantees solutions on-site, on-time and on-budget. As Schumacher puts it,“We aim to maintain a constant dialogue with our customers
over the full life cycle of a plant to ensure flawless operations.
Downtime is expensive. We know that flexibility and speed are
the most important assets we can offer.” //Bigger Picture – World of Voith

LED Tubes retire old-style lights

8 MW

offshore wind turbines outfittedwith new AeroDrive technology produce “plant quality” power: Designed
for 8 MW turbines, with its consistentrotation speed, AeroDrive renders frequency converters obsolete. AeroDrive
combines Voith Turbo’s hydrodynamictransmission technology WinDrive withtransmission specialist Renk’s gear unit
Aerogear, maximizing reliability andminimizing plant malfunctions. //200,000
Saving 200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy a year can contribute towards saving €200,000.

it has been in the cards for years,

and now energy-inefficient light bulbs
are finally biting the dust. Highlighting
this hugely significant and environmentally motivated change of direction is DIW Instandhaltung, a company of Voith Industrial Services. For its
customer NTN Antriebstechnik, DIW
is producing an incredible energy saving of 200,000 kilowatt-hours a year.
A significant investment by the company means that its 18,000-squaremeter production hall no longer features old-style lighting; instead, thespace is now fully lit by more than
1,000 super-modern LED tubes. NTN
is fully signed up to the ISO 14001
management system, which tracks all
aspects of the relevant legal and environment rules, laws and regulations.
An important element of the installation of the 30-watt LED tubes not only
signals the end of the lifespan ofcountless inefficient T8 lights, but it
will also produce a savings for NTN
Antriebstechnik of around €200,000
in electricity and equipment acrossthe new lighting’s lifetime. //record speeds but not just on paper
from its world-record start-up speed of 1,662 meters per minute, the Voith
Paper Integrated EcoMill (IEM) at Perlen Paper’s PM 7 site in Switzerland is impressive in every way. While record speeds may impress many, the plant’s environmental statistics are even more of a wonder. Take, for example, the fact thatmodern technology means the site uses 30 percent less fresh water than before– an effect of the new water management. Or that the site takes its fresh waterfrom its own well – e.g. for cooling – and after use discharges it back to its original
source … uncontaminated. And then there is the use of 5 percent less electricalenergy per metric ton of paper produced, which before long should be betteredby achieving an even more efficient ratio of around 10 percent lower thermal energy usage. Recycling, of course, is fundamental to Perlen Paper’s PM7 performance, and Voith LowEnergyFlotation (LEF) technology ensures that energy use
during the ink-removal stage has been reduced by more than 30 percent. //1,662 m/min
The record start-up speed of Voith Paper’s new Integrated EcoMill.

34,000t
The trough that will lift ships at theThree Gorges Dam spanning theYangtze River in China weighs in at an
impressive 34,000 tons – the same as
60 fully loaded A380 airliners. It willconsiderably alleviate ship traffic on
China’s major transportation artery.
The 120x18x3.5-meter basin willtransfer ships over a vertical distanceof 113 meters, reducing the time oftransit from the 3.5 hours it currently
takes to pass through the locks to just
30–40 minutes. Four giant towers
made of reinforced concrete will holdthe trough, which will be powered byelectric motors. Voith Turbo supplied
the eight cardan shafts that transmit
power to the pinions. //HyPower 2012 | 37

GUEST PERSPECTIVE

Taming the wind and waves takes
more than just technical skill –efficient teamwork is indispensable.

WINNING ON WATER
International sailing professional and America’s Cup winner Christian Scherrer talks
about teamwork in competitive sailing – and how it relates to teamwork in business.
What kind of attitude does it take to
be a successful crewmember?
Full commitment and passion. You’ve
got to love what you do and want to be
successful. You have to work hard andwork as a team.
What are the key elements that makea winning team?
You need the right people: not only theones with the right technical competences, but also the right social skills and the right culturalcompetences. The common goal is most important: what theteam wants and what the team can get. And when the teamwins, every member wins at the same time.
Have you experienced cultural differences while sailing?
How do these affect teamwork? Can such differences bebeneficial?
There are differences in mentalities between different cultures.
When you put a multicultural team together, it takes time to
get a feel for that. Later on, though, I think a variety of culturesin a team is something that’s enriching, because everybody
brings a different background, know-how and point of view.
38 | HyPower 2012

Swiss sailing pro
Christian Scherrer
regularly competes
for international
sport’s oldest trophy, the America’s
Cup. As a consultant, he applies
lessons learned asa crewmember.

I think most business teams, and alsosailing teams, are international now; it’spart of the game.

Conditions during a race don’t usually provide the best backgroundfor communication. What have youlearned from those challenges out
on the water?
It’s still important to communicate –communication is key wherever you
work. It’s got to be the right communication, and it’s got to beable to flow in the right way and in the right amount.
Do you have any specific team-building exercises thatyou would recommend?
Spending time together doing something that you don’t usually do when you work – whatever it is. It’s definitely a goodthing to be in a different environment, to learn about people
and to know how they work and try to achieve something together. Therefore, one of the great things to do is to go on a
sailboat in a group. Or learn something totally new, where
everybody starts from scratch. Do that outdoors, do it in adifferent environment and build something new. //HyPower 2012 | 39

All plants mentioned inthis issue and Voith’sscope of supply

Project
Directory

3

4

5

7
6

1

1 Água Vermelha, Brazil:
overhaul of six 232.7 MWFrancis units.
2 Ferreira Gomes, Brazil:
complete mechanical,
electrical and automation
systems for three 87 MW
Kaplan units.
3 Palo Viejo, Guatemala:turnkey supply for two
vertical Francis power
units. Overall output: 86
MW.
4 Ohio Falls, USA: refurbishment of eight generat-

2

8

11

10

ing units: Overall output:
101 MW.
5 Cannelton, Meldahl,
Smithland and Willow
Island, USA: complete
mechanical, electricaland automation systems.
Expected overall output:
313 MW.
6 Smith Mountain, USA:
design and field installation of generator stator
coils.
7 Des Joachims, Canada: modernization of three913

45 MVA generators.
8 Sisimiut, Greenland:
turnkey project, all mechanical, electrical andautomation systems fortwo 7.65 MW Francis
units.
9 Rånåsfoss, Norway:Rånåsfoss II: switchgear
modernization. Rånåsfoss
III: six propeller turbines,
generators and automation system.
10 Solbergfoss, Norway:
Solbergfoss I: overhaul of

12

turbine governors andstator windings for three
generators. Solbergfoss II:
automation and control
systems, turbine governor, switchgear systemoverhaul.
11 Rodund and Kops,
Austria: Rodund II: new
295 MW pumped storage
unit. Kops I: three double
Pelton turbines and controller components.
12 Akköprü, Turkey:
complete mechanical,

15

14electrical and automationequipment for two 59.3
MW Francis units.
13 Akköy, Turkey: Akköy I:
three Francis turbines,
overall output: 103 MW;
Akköy II: two 116.78 MW
Pelton turbines.
14 Shi San Ling, China:
four sets of pump turbines, with inlet valvesand control system.
15 Guangzhou, China:
supply of four pumpedstorage units.

Published by:Voith Hydro Holding GmbH & Co. KG
Alexanderstr. 1189522 Heidenheim, Germany
Tel: +49 7321 37 0
Fax: +49 7321 37-7828
www.voith.com
A Voith and Siemens Company