Hydro-Québec has announced an investment of C$750m ($570m) for the refurbishment of its Carillon hydropower plant, built on the Ottawa River near Carillon in Quebec, Canada.
The company will mainly make the investment in replacing six generating units at the power plant.
Built in the early 1960s, the Carillon plant is a run-of-river power plant, powered by 14 generating units with an installed capacity 753MW. It is also one of the important hydropower plants of Hydro-Québec’s power generating fleet.
The investment will cover the cost of civil engineering work such as making adjustment to water passageways, upgrade of electrical equipment and replacing the station roof.
The works, which will begin next year, are expected to continue till 2027.
The existing turbines and generators at the Carillon generating station were manufactured by ANDRITZ.
Hydro-Québec production president and chief innovation officer David Murray said: “Carillon generating station is a symbol of our hydroelectric development and plays a strategic role in our production fleet. However, most of the generating units’ main components date back to the station’s original construction from 1959 to 1962.
“Hydropower generating stations have long service lives – with this refurbishment, Carillon will be producing clean renewable energy for decades to come.”
Andritz to re-equip all turbine-generator units at the hydropower plant
As part of the refurbishment, Hydro-Québec had selected Andritz as the exclusive partner to re-equip all the fourteen 54MW turbine-generator units at the plant.
The company has also received an order from the company to supply and install the first set of six turbine-generator units.
The first phase will include the complete re-equipment of all the six units with new generators, speed governors and Kaplan-type turbines. While all the removable parts will be replaced, most of the embedded parts will be retained and refurbished.
Andritz has also been given the responsibility of the design, manufacturing, transportation, assembly, testing and commissioning of the entire equipment.
Once the works are completed, the new generating units are claimed to provide clean, renewable energy for the next 50 years.
ANDRITZ Hydro Canada president Daniel Carrier said: “The completion of this project will have a significant impact on maintaining Quebec’s hydroelectric know-how within ANDRITZ and its many suppliers located in Quebec.”
