Major Overhaul for Riga Hydropower Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - One of Latvia's biggest hydropower plants is scheduled to undergo a €100 million ($108.4 million) overhaul.

A contract to refurbish six 69-megawatt (MW) Kaplan units for the Riga hydropower plant, located on the 1,020 kilometer (km) long Daugauva river, has been awarded to French engineering firm, Alstom S.A. (Euronext:ALO) (Paris, France) by state-owned electric utility, Latvenergo, the largest electricity supplier in Latvia. The project forms part of Latvenergo's €200 million ($216.8 million) investment programme in the Daugava river hydropower plants.

The win for Alstom comes a week after the company secured a contract to upgrade one of three turbines at the Ligga hydropower station in Sweden. For additional information, see April 22, 2015, article - Alstom Upgrading Sweden's Ligga Hydropower Plant.

The contract will see Alstom refurbish the turbines and the generators, as well as install a new control system and auxiliary equipment. One unit per year will be refurbished for the next eight years and the renovation will be completed in 2022, the company claimed. After that, the annual production at the Riga facility will increase by at least 20-gigawatt hours ( GWh).

The Riga plant is one of Latvia's three main hydropower plants, which generated more than half of the country's power. Figures show that the plant produced 679 GWh of clean energy in 2013. The overhaul is expected to extend the plant's lifetime by another 40 years.

"The Riga hydropower plant is strategically important for energy supply in Latvia, and we will be able to raise the efficiency of the hydropower plant and enhance its operation safety for the coming decades," explained Māris Kuņickis, AS Latvenergo Production Director. "We have chosen Alstom because they will implement specific solutions reducing the outage duration of each unit to the benefit of Latvenergo."

"Alstom has a long standing experience in hydropower," added Eric Staurset, Alstom Nordic & Baltic countries Director. "Our dedicated team will be fully committed to refurbish the Riga hydropower plant in a manner that improves reliability, lowers long term operating costs, and benefits the environment. This contract shows our commitment to the Latvian hydro market".

Latvenergo generates about 70% of the country's electricity. It operates four hydropower plants with a total installed capacity of 1,535 MWh, along with two combined heat and power (CHP) plants with total electrical capacity of 474 MWe and heat capacity of 1,525 MWt.

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