Power plant pearls

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Power plant pearls
Pearl paper mill with power station, 1946
Pearl paper mill with power station, 1946
location
Perlen power plant (Canton of Lucerne)
Power plant pearls
Coordinates 670 576  /  218214 coordinates: 47 ° 6 '40 "  N , 8 ° 22' 7"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred seventy thousand five hundred and seventy-six  /  218214
country Switzerland
Waters Reuss
Data
Type Canal power plant
Primary energy Hydropower
power 2 MW
Project start 1862
Start of operations 1873
turbine four Kaplan turbines : one S-bulb turbine, three vertical suction lift turbines
Energy fed in per year 16 GWh
Website Perlen Papier AG
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The Perlen power plant is a run-of-river power plant on the Reuss in Perlen ( Buchrain ) and Root in the canton of Lucerne . It belongs to Perlen Papier AG .

history

The founder of the Bell machine works in Kriens , August Bell, made the proposal in 1862 to build a 3.2 km long Reuss Canal in order to set up a spinning mill in Perlen. His son Theodor changed the project and proposed a factory for the production of wood pulp and paper. This initiated industrial development in Perlen (Buchrain). From 1869, Theodor Bell built the turbines for the two hydropower plants and the two paper machines for the paper mill, which was considered a pioneering achievement for Central Switzerland.

In 1872 August Bell and his son Theodor founded a wood pulp factory in Perlen , which was expanded to include a paper mill in 1873 . Silk and paper manufacturers from Zurich, Basel and Bern sat on the board of directors. The paper mill and the wood mill have each operated a hydropower plant since the company was founded, which draw water from the Reuss via a factory canal. The Perlen 1 hydropower plant (wood factory) is located above (upstream) the Perlen 2 hydropower plant (paper mill).

Reuss with Reuss weir, Reuss Canal with Perlen 1 (wood factory) and Perlen 2 (paper factory, in the background) power station, 1965

At the beginning of the 20th century, the paper mill's hydropower plant was electrified with four generator turbines from Voith . At the same time, three new turbines with purely mechanical power transmission were driving a common vertical shaft. This turbine shaft drove grinding machines ( paper mills ) for stock preparation via belt drives . In the 1940s, the Dutch turbine shaft was coupled to a generator. The seven turbines did their job until the 1980s without major investments.

The wood factory's overhead water turbine system was completely renewed in 1981 and equipped with a Kaplan S bulb turbine.

In the mid-1990s, the paper mill had to decide between decommissioning or maintaining the water turbine system after the last of the old turbines failed and repairing it was no longer economical. The two hydropower plants at the Perlen paper mill are small, low-pressure hydropower plants. The small usable gradient and the small power lead to high energy production costs. Therefore an innovative, cost-effective solution had to be found for the renewal.

The paper mill decided to completely renew the system with three vertical Kaplan turbines, which took place in 1999. With the technology of suction lift (“fully lifted” turbine), which was used for the first time in Switzerland , the construction costs were reduced by 20% and lower operating costs were achieved. The three simply regulated vertical axial turbines achieve a maximum output of 342 kilowatts of electrical power each. With this total output of 1 MW (megawatt), an average annual production of around 8  GWh can be generated.

In 2017, Perlen Papier AG presented the project for the rehabilitation of the weir in the Reuss, which was damaged in the 2005 flood, as part of the new concession .

Today's production

The two waterworks located in series on the same diversion canal, each with a mean net gradient of 2.7 meters, turbine a constant water flow of 45 m³ / s for almost the whole year. The remaining water volume is 6.8 m³ / s. Both hydropower plants have a total output of 1 MW (megawatt) each and an average annual production of around 8 GWh each  .

See also

literature

  • Werner Mäder, Kurt Füllemann: 100 Years of Pearls, 1873–1973. Anniversary publication for the 100th anniversary of the Perlen paper factory, Perlen 1973
  • W. Wyssling: The development of the Swiss electricity works and their components . Swiss Electrotechnical Association , 1946.

Web links

Commons : Pearl Paper Mill  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ [1] Municipality of Buchrain: Industrial Development
  2. ↑ [2] Federal Office of Energy SFOE: KWK Perlen, demonstration project suction lifter turbines, final report 2001
  3. ↑ [3] Aqua Viva 2015: New concession for Kraftwerk Papierfabrik Perlen AG