Ritom power plant

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Ritom power plant
Pressure pipeline of the Ritom power plant
Pressure pipeline of the Ritom power plant
location
Ritom power plant (Switzerland)
Ritom power plant
Coordinates 694 934  /  152523 coordinates: 46 ° 31 '2 "  N , 8 ° 40' 33"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred and ninety-four thousand nine hundred and thirty-four  /  152523
country Switzerland
Waters Ritom Lake
Data
Type Storage power plant
Primary energy Hydropower
power 44 MW
owner Ritom SA, owned by
operator until 2024: SBB Energy
from 2024: AET
Project start 1917
Start of operations 1920
turbine 4 × Pelton turbine
Energy fed in 2012 155 GWh
Website SBB
was standing 2013
f2

The Ritom power plant is a storage power plant in Switzerland that is supplied with water from Lake Ritom . It is located in the canton of Ticino in the Leventina Valley , on the south side of the Gotthard Pass in the area of ​​the municipality of Quinto . The facility is owned by Ritom SA , an operating company that is 75% owned by SBB and 25% by Azienda Elettrica Ticinese .

history

Exterior view with pressure pipe in 1919
9000 kVA single-phase alternating current generator during assembly

The Ritom power plant was built by the SBB in connection with the electrification of the Gotthard Railway and was the first power plant in this project to go into operation in 1920. On the night of June 30th to July 1st, 1920, the first freight trains with electric traction ran through the Gotthard tunnel , but the day after the start of operations, the power plant had to be shut down because water had escaped from the pressure tunnel and a landslide with a volume of 2000 m³ had triggered. The operation of the power station could be resumed in the same year after an overflow was built below the shaft that regulated the water outflow from the lake , so that the tunnel could no longer be operated as a pressure tunnel, but as a gravity tunnel .

The generators directly generated the contact line voltage, which was initially only 7.5 kV and was not raised to 15 kV until May 29, 1921. This should rollovers polluted to the trains running more parallel through the first steam engines with soot insulators of catenary be avoided. The switchover of the contact line voltage was achieved by switching the winding of the transducer for regulating the excitation voltage of the generators. The transmission line to the north was always operated at 60 kV, regardless of the overhead line voltage. For this purpose, the transformers were provided with switchable windings.

Garegna tunnel, work progress. Ingress of water, mud and debris

The Spanish flu broke out during construction work on the Ritom power plant . The construction management in Piotta set up an emergency hospital for the patients in an empty two-family house, which was in operation from October 18, 1918 to January 20, 1919. The emergency hospital was mainly occupied by workers who were employed by a company belonging to the construction consortium, but also by 4 residents of Quinto. The 84 patients came together for 845 hospital days, whereby two people died. Due to the flu epidemic, the timely completion of the machine house was at times endangered.

In 1953 the expansion included a water-technical enlargement of the catchment area by 9 square kilometers, through the construction of two slope canals and the Garengna tunnel. The construction work, especially of the tunnel, turned out to be difficult and ingress of water, mud and gravel accompanied the construction. Likewise, as a result of the water-permeable rock layers, the Ritomsee could not be dammed to the planned height.

Between 1966 and 1968 the small machine house ▼ of the Stalvedro power plant was built east of the power plant's power plant Ritom , which draws the water from the Airolo ▼ compensation basin of the Lucendro power plant .

renovation

Ritom power plant (planned renovation)
location
Coordinates 694934  /  152523
Waters Ritom Lake
Data
power 120 MW
Project start 2010
Start of operations 2023
turbine 1 × Pelton turbine 60 MW, 16.7 Hz
1 × Pelton turbine 60 MW, 50 Hz
1 × pump 60 MW, 50 Hz
1 × frequency converter 40 MW
Website SBB project Ritom
was standing 2018

As part of the renewal of the concession , the canton of Ticino and Azienda Elettrica Ticinese took a 25% stake in the power plant and the water rights to Lake Ritom. A new machine house is planned between the existing machine houses of the two power plants Ritom and Stalvedro. It is to be equipped with two 60 MW turbines - one for 16.7 Hz traction current and one for 50 Hz - and a 60 MW pump. The pump pumps water from the Airolo basin, which is part of the Stalvedro power plant, into Lake Ritom. Furthermore, a 40 MW converter should enable the exchange of energy between the two networks. The Piotta demodulation basin, with a capacity of 100,000 m³, is intended to collect the water from the Ritom and Stalvedro power plants and discharge it evenly into the Ticino river . The pressure line is also to be laid completely underground.

The planning application for the renewal of the power plant was published on June 13, 2017 and granted in summer 2018. The costs are expected to amount to CHF 250 million. Commercial commissioning is expected in 2023.

technology

The Ritom power plant produces single-phase traction current with a network frequency of 16.7  Hz for the power supply of the Gotthard Railway and is connected to the Göschenen power plant , the Giornico and Lavorgo substations and the Giubiasco frequency converter plant with 132 kV transmission lines.

The four Pelton turbines together have an installed capacity of 44  MW . Each turbine drives a 6-pole salient pole generator from BBC , which is provided with a damper winding and has a continuous output of 9 MVA at 340 rpm. The generator output voltage is 15 kV, the power factor 0.75.

With a fall height of 850 m, 155  GWh of electrical energy are produced annually. The water comes from the Ritomsee via a 1030 m long tunnel to the moated castle , from where it reaches the 1413 m long two-strand pressure pipelines . A third pressure line was planned, but was not built. The meter-gauge funicular Ritom leads along the pressure pipe to the moated castle. It was used for material transport during the construction of the power plant and was opened for public transport after the power plant went into operation.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Kraftwerk Ritom  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ AET (Ed.): Annual Report 2019 . S. 21 (English, aet.ch ).
  2. ↑ Carl Jegher: From the Ritom power plant of the SBB In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung . tape 76 , no. 2 , 1920, p. 19-20 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-36492 .
  3. ^ H. Habich: The power plant Ritom of the SBB In: Swiss construction newspaper . tape 82 , no. 1 , 1923, voltage and current regulation, p. 8 , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-38935 ( e-periodica.ch [accessed on July 31, 2020]).
  4. ↑ H. Habich: The Ritom power plant of the SBB 1923, Die Transformatoren, p. 65 , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-38952 .
  5. ↑ Correspondence with the flu epidemic and the emergency hospital relating to the cost key and loan (SBB-Historic archive)
  6. ↑ Document on the occupancy of the emergency hospital (SBB-Historic archive)
  7. ↑ Th. Nager, H. Habich: The power station Ritom of the SBB In: Swiss construction newspaper . tape 81 , no. 25 , 1923, pp. 308 , doi : 10.5169 / SEALS-38928 .
  8. ↑ P. Tresch: The expansion of the hydraulic engineering systems of the Ritom power station of the Swiss Federal Railways . In: Water and Energy Management . No. 4/5/6 , 1953.
  9. ↑ AET (ed.): Impianto idroelettrico Stalvedro . ( aet.ch ).
  10. ↑ a b Ritom hydropower plant - Azienda Elettrica Ticinese. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .
  11. ↑ SBB present project for new Ritom hydropower plant. Retrieved November 6, 2013 .
  12. ↑ «There were fascinating tasks to be solved». In: Jungfrau newspaper. May 30, 2016. Retrieved August 28, 2016 .