VGB Quality Award 2018
The VGB Quality Award 2018 was granted to the consortium of Voith GmbH and Siemens, S.A. for the EDP – Gestão da Produção de Energia, S.A. project
- Frades II pumped storage power plant in Portugal.
The Frades II pumped storage power plant is located in the north of Portugal and started operation in 2017. Taking advantage of 2 existing reservoirs in Cavádo and Rabagão river, namely Venda Nova and Salamonde, this new underground plant was entirely constructed in the rocky granite mountains and comprises a new 4.5 km unlined hydraulic tunnel designed for 200 m3/s and a cavern where 2 reversible variable speed units are housed providing 790 MW of new generating capacity and 600 MW to 780 MW of pumping capacity. The difference in level between the upper and lower reservoirs is about 420 meters.
EDP awarded the civil scope to the Joint Venture “Reforço de Potência da Barragem de Venda Nova III ACE” and the complete electro-mechanical scope to a consortium between Voith Hydro and Siemens Portugal. Technology group Voith supplied the plant with the variable speed pump turbines each with a rated output of 390 MW, two asynchronous motor-generators (Doubly Fed Induction Machine DFIM) with a rated output of 420 MVA each, the voltage source inverter VSI (large scale frequency converter) and related auxiliary systems. This part of the scope also included control systems, electrical unit protection, monitoring system, cooling water and blowdown system as well as the hydraulic steel components with intake safety gate, penstock liner, draft tube gates, stop logs and trash racks.
Siemens, on its hand, supplied all the electrical infrastructures from generator terminals to the 400 kV grid, including 400 kV cables (1,8 km long), electrical auxiliary services, communication, ventilation, pumping and safety systems as well as the cranes serving all the power scheme.
The new Frades II pumped storage power plant called for innovative thinking of the companies involved. The engineering time schedule has been fully met. The health and safety organization of the overall project has been executed under the superintendence of the project owner (EDP) whereas both contractors (E&M and Civil) had an own team of safety engineers on site for supervision and coordination of the works.
The award was handed over by the Chairman of the VGB Board of Directors, Dr Hans Bünting, on the occasion of the VGB Congress 2018 “Power Generation in Transition” in Munich to the representatives of Voith, Mr Alexander Kienle, Siemens, Mr. João Silva Marques, and EDP, Mr António Ferreira da Costa.