ALSTOM, the global specialist on the infrastructure markets energy and transport, has a considerable share in this development. Thus, the company has not only invested major sums in the construction of new hydropower plants, but also in the modernisation of existing facilities. For ALSTOM Power Austria GmbH, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ranks today among the most important markets within its corporate scope – also due to its geographical closeness. Thus, the sale contract on the renewal of the fifth machine unit of the hydropower station Jablanica has recently been signed.
For ALSTOM Power Austria this conclusion constitutes the continuation of a successful cooperation with the customer Elektropriveda Bosnia & Herzegovina, which began already between 1998 and 2001 with the repair and upgrading of the first of a total of six machine units.
The power station Jablanica is located on the left bank of the Neretva River, about 80 km southwest of Sarajevo. The plant was built between 1954 and 1958 and is still the backbone of the Bosnian power network today.
However, with more than 250,000 operation hours all machine units have become obsolete. The rehabilitation of the power station basi-cally includes the generators (upgrading to 36 MVA), the static exciter, the process control, as well as the electrical protection device. Rehabilitation work will take 21 months.
Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Kölliker, managing director at ALSTOM Power Austria GmbH, expects major chances in the rehabilitation of existing plants in the future: "Liberalisation of power supply has given fresh impetus to hydropower in some European countries.
Apart from their environmental compatibility, hydropower stations stand out by their ability to feed power into the grid within seconds. In addition, the new EU members from Eastern European states have committed themselves in the framework of the accession negotiations to observe the corresponding standards and are simply for this reason important markets."
(Source: aqua press Int. 3/2004)
