Voith Revamps Norwegian Hydropower Plants

---

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Voith Hydro has secured a contract to modernise six turbines at four of Statkraft's hydropower stations in Norway.

The contract, which is estimated to be worth around €10 million ($12.8 million), will involve modernising turbines at the power stations Oevre Roessaaga, Nedre Roessaaga, Baatsvatn and Vessingfoss. It will involve installing six, new Francis turbines which will boost output at the stations by up to 10%, Voith explained. The four stations were commissioned between 1955 and 1975.

"The order in Norway is an important success for Voith", said Dr. Roland Münch, President and CEO of Voith Hydro. "With Statkraft as our customer we have been cooperating excellently in Europe's leading hydropower market."

Statkraft AS (Oslo, Norway) is the largest energy supplier in Norway and one of the major producers of electricity from hydropower in Europe. In Norway alone, Statkraft operates more than 140 hydropower stations and has announced plans to modernise many of its older plants in the coming years. Hydropower accounts for 99% of the country's electricity. Outside of Norway, Statkraft owns and operates 59 hydropower plants in Sweden, 11 in Germany, four in Finland, three in the United Kingdom, and 15 outside Europe.

Voith has recently set out to strengthen its position in the burgeoning Russian market by creating a joint venture company with Russian hydropower major, RusHydro (Moscow, Russia). The new company, called VolgaHydro LLC, will operate out of Moscow. Voith maintained that Russia's hydropower market has the untapped potential of 424,000-megawatts of power. Today, 46,000 MW of hydro has been installed. The joint venture will aim to build new hydropower plants as well as focusing on modernising older plants. Voith and RusHydro have already started to overhaul plans at Miatlinskaya and Saratovskaya.

RusHydro is the world's second-largest publicly traded hydro electricity generation conglomerate, with total installed electric capacity of 35,000 MW -- almost three quarters of that generated by hydro. Last September, the company announced plans to build four hydropower plants in Kyrgyzstan over the next five years. For additional information, see September 24, 2012, article - Russia's RusHydro Plans to Build Four Hydropower Plants in Kyrgzstan.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.