Illspitz power plant

Illspitz power plant
	Weir power plant Illspitz upstream (Feldkirch) photographed two months before completion
	location
Coordinates	47 ° 17 '54 " N , 9 ° 33' 30" E Coordinates: 47 ° 17 '54 " N , 9 ° 33' 30" E
country	Austria Vorarlberg
place	Feldkirch
Waters	Ill
Kilometers of water	km 0.00
Height upstream	426 m above sea level A.
	power plant
owner	Stadtwerke Feldkirch, Feldkirch
operator	Stadtwerke Feldkirch, Feldkirch
Start of planning	2005
construction time	2012-2014
Start of operation	2014
	technology
Bottleneck performance	7.2 megawatts
Average ; height of fall	4.5-8.5 m
Expansion flow	2 × 60 m³ / s
Standard work capacity	28.5 million kWh / year
Turbines	2 Kaplan tubular shaft turbines
Generators	2 synchronous generators
	Others
Website	kraftwerk-illspitz.at
was standing	May 2014

Scheme of a run-of-river power plant

Illspitz near Feldkirch , 2008, with a new bridge before the power plant was built.

Weir power station Illspitz photographed downstream, two months before completion

Construction site of the Illspitz power plant two months before completion.

The small hydropower plant Kraftwerk Illspitz is a run-of-river power plant on the Ill and was built by Stadtwerke Feldkirch (City of Feldkirch ) in Vorarlberg , Austria and started operations in summer 2014.

This investment is an important contribution for the city of Feldkirch as an e5 community .

history

The bed above river kilometer 4.0 of the Ill has deepened by up to 2 m since 1935. The deepening averages 1–2 cm / year over the last 30 years. The bed of the Rhine has sunk even more. This created a significant difference in altitude at the confluence of the Ill with the Rhine.

In 2005 the Stadtwerke Feldkirch began to examine the feasibility of an economically sensible and ecologically compatible use of hydropower on the Illspitz. In October 2008, after completion of the submission planning, an application was made to the responsible authorities for approval under water, forest and nature conservation law. All procedures were dealt with jointly on June 22, 2010 and the project received the nature conservation and forest law permit in October 2010 and the water law permit in December 2010. The city council of Feldkirch then decided unanimously on June 28, 2011 to build the power plant on the Illspitz and commissioned the execution of the general planning services in August 2011. Construction work began in winter 2011/2012. The official groundbreaking for the trade was on August 8, 2012. In the summer of 2012, the earthworks for the “Kleine Ill” were carried out. The construction work on the powerhouse and weir system began on August 7, 2012.

Due to flooding on 9/10 October 2012 the left-hand Ill-accompanying dam was flooded and partly destroyed as well as other systems and trades.

The right and middle weir field of the power plant was completed and put into operation on April 18, 2013. The Ill could be diverted into the two completed weir fields and the flow width increased again. In the now dry section of the Ill, construction work on the left weir field began and was completed and put into operation in February 2014. The concreting work for the power house began in August 2013 (floor slab, machine foundations, etc.).

In the winter of 2013/14 the inlet structure and the outlet structure to the "Kleine Ill" were built.

In spring 2013, an application was made to increase the consensus water volume from 90 m³ / s to 120 m³ / s. This approval was granted in December 2013.

On April 18, 2014 the two turbines and generators were installed. The machine sets were completed over the next few days, aligned and then poured with concrete after the gaps were reinforced.

So-called wet commissioning will take place at the end of July 2014. The turbine and generator were operated for the first time with the water of the Ill.

The power plant was commissioned in August 2014.

Environmental accompanying measures

The water of the lower Ill shows a “bad” ecological status in this section.

Therefore, with regard to the

Groundwater level,
flood protection,
the channel-like, structurally poor morphology of the lower Ill,
sediment transport and
special attention should be paid to fish passability during planning and execution. The ecological improvements in connection with the construction of the power plant and the accompanying measures were therefore part of the project from the start.

Accompanying ecological measures were for example:

Extension of the existing arm of the Ill river by approx. 1 km as a near-natural channel with regulated water doping,
Stabilization of the groundwater in the Matschelser Auwald,
Modification and renaturation of the bank area of the Ill mother bed over a length of about 300 m,
Creation of a shallow water zone in the storage space over a length of 250 m,
two additional fish ascent aids / fish descent with the turbine fine screen.

Costs, financing and citizen participation

The project costs were estimated at around 32 to 35 million euros and ended up being around 35 million euros. Financing is provided through own funds, traditional outside capital , green electricity investment funding of approx. 4 million euros and a public participation model of a maximum of 4 million euros.

Citizen participation models were used for power plant construction in Feldkirch as early as 1906 and 2003.

The 2014 public participation model for the Illspitz power plant provides for a fixed interest rate of two percent per year for the first five years. A variable rate for the second five years. A minimum of 1,000 and a maximum of 50,000 euros could be invested. Just ten days after setting up the energy system account, the volume of four million euros was fully exhausted.

Technical specifications

description

With the construction of the Illspitz power plant, the level of self-sufficiency of Stadtwerke Feldkirch with electrical energy from hydropower has almost doubled. The Illspitz power plant supplies more than 6,300 households in Feldkirch with energy.

The power house including the intake structure is located in the left accompanying dam of the Ill, in the area of the old mouth of the Ill, whereby all important parts of the system are underground. The inflowing water of the Ill is collected via the inlet structure and fed through the powerhouse to the turbines and discharged into the Rhine via the outlet structure. The power plant primarily uses the natural gradient on the Illspitz. A build-up should deliberately be kept as low as possible.

The three-part weir system is located in the Ill, just above the upper sole ramp. An underground corridor connects the entry structure on the right-hand side with the power house. This enables access to the weir pillars even under flood conditions. The weir segments can be raised and are designed with a flap attached.

Around 30,000 m³ of concrete and 5,000 t of steel were used.

construction time

Official construction period: August 7, 2012 to the end of July 2014 (trial operation with wet commissioning on August 4, 2014). The official commissioning took place on October 5, 2014.

Technical data for the power plant

The technical data of the power plant have the following main characteristics:

Technical data weir system

The weir system consists of three weir segments (segment gates), each 15 meters wide, for damming the flowing water. The flaps have a discharge capacity of 150 m³ / s. The weirs can be fully opened during floods; in this way, flood quantities can also be drained into the Alpine Rhine without any problems .

Height of weir segment (1 with flap 4, 60 m, 2 and 3 3.59 m)
Weir segments each 15 m wide
Height of the attachment flap 1.50 m
Queue length 1500 m
Reservoir height 3.50 m
Fall height 4.5 to 8.5 m
Storage destination 429.5 m above sea level A.

Expansion water volume 2 × 60 m³ / s

Electrical data power plant

Output: 7.2 MW
Annual generation : 28.5 million kWh (28.5 GWh)

Turbines

Two chaplain BULB
Maximum output of each turbine 3.6 MW,
Impeller diameter 2.85 m,
Weight per 47 tons,
Nominal flow of 45 m³ / s, but can be operated with up to 60 m³ / s

Generators

Generator speed around 158 / min

Generator output 4 MVA each

Transformers, cables, feed

Transformers each 4 MVA at 10 kV (switching to 20 kV designed)
The energy is fed into the Feldkirch municipal utility's 10 kV network.

Web links

Commons : Kraftwerk Illspitz - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ National Water Management Plan 2009, LOWER ILL , p. 7.
↑ There were already plans for this in the 1940s and 1980s.
↑ Also in 2008, a private investor publicly announced his intention to build a power plant on the Illspitz. On January 25, 2010, the submission project was submitted to the water authority.
↑ The permit under water law only became legally binding in July 2011, as an objection from a private person had been submitted.
↑ Empty piping for the power lines from the Feldkirch substation to the Illspitz, extension of the Matschelserbach by approx. 150 m to the southeast, creation of the line to the Ill.
↑ Doubling of the water flow to up to 333 m³ / s
↑ The clean-up work took almost two months. The construction work in the area of the future powerhouse was delayed by around four weeks.
↑ River kilometers 0.00-6.80.
↑ National Water Management Plan 2009, UNTERE ILL , p. 5.
↑ The groundwater level in the Illspitz area (Matschelser Auenwald) has sunk significantly over the past few decades as a result of the deepening of the Rhine bed by up to 4 m and the canal-like construction of the Ill.
↑ In 2002 the estuary of the Ill was rebuilt, but it mostly had no positive effects on the weaker fish species.
↑ The water framework directive is a mandatory requirement for the national implementation of such projects
↑ Eg fish ladder from the turbine outlet into the upper water and fish ladder from the stilling basin into the upper water
↑ When the Mühletorplatz power plant was built in 1906, an energy investment account was offered for the first time. In 2003, with the construction of the Hochwuhr power station, another public participation.
↑ Based on 12-month Euribor minimum 1.5% p. a., maximum 4.0% p. a.
↑ The original plan was for public participation to run from February 18 to April 15, 2013 at the latest.
↑ Increase in the in-house generation quota from 19 to 35 percent. In addition to the two smaller power plants Mühletorplatz and Hochwuhr already operated by Stadtwerke Feldkirch in the urban area on the Ill.
↑ See [1]
↑ Vorarlberger Nachrichten from 4./5. October 2014, p. A6.
↑ See also “Water, Energy, Air” - Volume 105, 2013, Issue 4, CH-5401 Baden, p. 253 ff.
↑ Originally around 25.5 million kWh / year was estimated. This increase was made possible by the subsequently approved increase in the consensus water volume in December 2013 from 90 m³ / s to 120 m³ / s.
↑ Bulb construction is characterized by the gearless design. The generator is surrounded by water and is cooled at the same time.
↑ The system is already designed for 20 kV.

[1] National Water Management Plan 2009, LOWER ILL , p. 7.

[2] There were already plans for this in the 1940s and 1980s.

[3] Also in 2008, a private investor publicly announced his intention to build a power plant on the Illspitz. On January 25, 2010, the submission project was submitted to the water authority.

[4] The permit under water law only became legally binding in July 2011, as an objection from a private person had been submitted.

[5] Empty piping for the power lines from the Feldkirch substation to the Illspitz, extension of the Matschelserbach by approx. 150 m to the southeast, creation of the line to the Ill.

[6] Doubling of the water flow to up to 333 m³ / s

[7] The clean-up work took almost two months. The construction work in the area of the future powerhouse was delayed by around four weeks.

[8] River kilometers 0.00-6.80.

[9] National Water Management Plan 2009, UNTERE ILL , p. 5.

[10] The groundwater level in the Illspitz area (Matschelser Auenwald) has sunk significantly over the past few decades as a result of the deepening of the Rhine bed by up to 4 m and the canal-like construction of the Ill.

[11] In 2002 the estuary of the Ill was rebuilt, but it mostly had no positive effects on the weaker fish species.

[12] The water framework directive is a mandatory requirement for the national implementation of such projects

[13] Eg fish ladder from the turbine outlet into the upper water and fish ladder from the stilling basin into the upper water

[14] When the Mühletorplatz power plant was built in 1906, an energy investment account was offered for the first time. In 2003, with the construction of the Hochwuhr power station, another public participation.

[15] Based on 12-month Euribor minimum 1.5% p. a., maximum 4.0% p. a.

[16] The original plan was for public participation to run from February 18 to April 15, 2013 at the latest.

[17] Increase in the in-house generation quota from 19 to 35 percent. In addition to the two smaller power plants Mühletorplatz and Hochwuhr already operated by Stadtwerke Feldkirch in the urban area on the Ill.

[18] See [1]

[19] Vorarlberger Nachrichten from 4./5. October 2014, p. A6.

[20] See also “Water, Energy, Air” - Volume 105, 2013, Issue 4, CH-5401 Baden, p. 253 ff.

[21] Originally around 25.5 million kWh / year was estimated. This increase was made possible by the subsequently approved increase in the consensus water volume in December 2013 from 90 m³ / s to 120 m³ / s.

[22] Bulb construction is characterized by the gearless design. The generator is surrounded by water and is cooled at the same time.

[23] The system is already designed for 20 kV.