Northern Illinois Hydropower LLC (NIH) awarded the firm supply contracts for turbines and related technology for the proposed Brandon Road and Dresden Island Hydroelectric Power projects, which are located on US Army Corps of Engineers Lock and Dam sites near Jolliet, Illinois. The Brandon Road project on the Des Plaines River will include a new powerhouse that will utilize two mavel Pit Turbines type KP3000K4. Mavel will also supply hydraulic design, generators, control systems and supervision for installation and commissioning. The site with discharge of 4730ft3/sec and design net head of 26ft will have total installed power of 10.2MW.
The Dresden Island project on the Illinois River will be equipped with three Mavel Kaplan Pit turbines type KP3800K3. Net head is 16.5ft, discharge is 10,560ft3/sec and total installed power will be 11.7MW.
Construction on the projects is slated to begin this year with commissioning in 2013. Mavel has contracted Hydro ECI of Granby, Quebec to provide the plant controls and switchgear.
In Panama, the company will supply equipment for the Las Perlas Norte and Las Perlas Sur run-of-river projects. Each project will utilize two Mavel horizontal Francis turbines type FSH1050 and have total installed power of 10MW.
The Las Perlas Norte Project has head of 192ft and total flow of 705ft3/sec. The Las Perlas Sur Project has head of 193ft and total flow of 705ft3/sec. Mavel’s supply includes inlet valves, turbines, generators with fly wheels, hydraulic pressure and lubrication units, plant control and switchgear and supervision of installation, testing and commissioning.
The projects are owned by Las Perlas Nortes, S.A. and Las Perlas Sur, S.A. Mavel has worked with the owners’ Bogota, Colombia-based engineering firm Ingetec, S.A. Mavel has contracted two Czech companies as major sub-suppliers - with the generators to be provided by TES Vsetin and the plant controls and switchgear by INGOS.
Equipment production and civil construction began earlier this year and commissioning of both plants is expected in the third quarter of 2012.
These are the second and third power plants in a cascade of hydroelectric power plants developed on the Piedra River utilizing Mavel turbines. In 2008, the first in the cascade, Concepcion, was commissioned with installed power of 10MW. This plant also utilized two Mavel FSH1050 horizontal Francis turbines. All performance guarantees for this project were met with the best measured turbine efficiency at 93.1%.
