Usine des Forces Motrices
| Usine des Forces Motrices | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| location | ||
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| Coordinates | 499 563 / 117859 | |
| country |
 Switzerland
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| place | Geneva | |
| Waters | Rhone | |
| power plant | ||
| Start of planning | 1882 | |
| construction time | 1883-1892 | |
| Start of operation | May 1886 | |
| Shutdown | 1963 | |
| Listed since | 1988 | |
| technology | ||
| Bottleneck performance | 3.3 megawatts | |
| Average height of fall |
3 m | |
| Expansion flow | 800 m³ / s | |
| Turbines | 18 Jonval turbines | |
| Others | ||
| Website | http://www.bfm.ch | |
The Usine des Forces Motrices de la Coulouvrenière , French for Coulouvrenière power station , known locally as Usine des Forces Motrices or Usine de Coulouvrenière , is a former run-of-river power station on the Rhone in Geneva , not far from the Pont de la Coulouvrenière bridge . The power plant used the head of a barrage to regulate the discharge of Lake Geneva . Coulouvrenière is a Geneva location.
The designation as a power plant " Usine des Forces Motrices" was not yet equated with the term electricity generation. The power plant's turbines did not drive electrical generators, but pumps to supply the city with drinking and pressurized water . The latter was used by the local small industry as an energy source to drive machines and generators. The pressure relief valve of the pressurized water supply was the forerunner of the Jet d'eau water fountain .
The facility, which was built in 1883, is one of the oldest large-scale hydropower facilities in Europe and has not been in operation since 1963. The level of the water in Lake Geneva is regulated today by the Barrage du Seujet , which is a few meters downstream from the Forces Motrices building. The former machine house of the power plant, known as Bâtiment des Forces Motrices (abbreviated BFM ), is a listed building and is now used as a theater and event hall. It is not to be confused with L'Usine , a factory building also located there, which is now a widely used event center.
history
On the initiative of Daniel Colladon , the city of Geneva, headed by Théodore Turrettini, had the power station built between the Plainpalais , then still a suburb, and the city of Geneva in the middle of the Rhone at today's Rue de la Coulouvrenière on the Place des Volontaires.
The concession for the plant was granted in December 1882 by the Grand Council of the Canton of Geneva and the City of Geneva. Work then began in November 1883 during the winter low water of the Rhone. For the construction of the buildings and the barrage in the river bed, the left arm of the river had to be drained in two stages.
In May 1886 the first five Jonval turbines could be put into operation, which were housed in the short wing of the building, which is now L-shaped. Their total output was 900 kW. Two turbines supplied today's old town and the three other areas that were up to ten kilometers away from the plant. The pressurized water network mainly served the small industry, especially the watchmaker's workshops .
In 1892 the long wing of the building was completed, which provided space for a further 15 turbines. Except for the last two, they were gradually installed with increasing power requirements. The last turbine was installed in 1897 so that the system with 18 turbines could deliver a total output of 3.3 MW.
Energy production was stopped in 1963, but the system remained in operation as a drinking water pumping station until 1988 .
technology
Barrage
The barrage was a roller shutter weir that was attached to the part of the Pont de la Machine that ran over the right arm of the Rhone . A newly built pedestrian bridge made of puddle iron replaced the existing structure. The chosen construction material made it possible for the superstructure of the bridge to absorb the transverse forces transferred to it by the weir.
The roller shutter weir consisted of 39 individual roll-up curtains made of larch wood , which could dammed the natural runoff a maximum of 3.3 meters. Even after the Usine des Forces Motrices was shut down, the weir was used to regulate Lake Geneva and was not taken out of service until 1995 when this task was taken over by the Usine du Seujet further downstream.
Machine house
The layout of the neo -held machine housing is L-shaped. The longer wing runs roughly in the middle of the river, parallel to the flowing water, while the shorter wing extends to the bank at Rue Coulouvrenière. The natural stone clad concrete building has large glazed arched windows. The roof is supported by an iron half-timbered structure, so that the interior does not have any pillars or retaining walls.
The upper part of the facade to the old town is decorated with statues of Neptune , Ceres and Mercury .
The overpressure valve of the pressurized water network was installed next to the large wing, which , when triggered, let a water fountain, the Jet d'eau , shoot up into the air. Pressure peaks arose especially at the end of the day, when the industrial companies gradually shut down their machines. The pump output could then only be adjusted to the acceptance pressure with difficulty. The fountain, visible from afar, became the city's landmark and was relocated to its current location in the lake in 1891 as a pure tourist attraction.
Turbines
The submerged Jonval turbines supplied by Escher Wyss AG from Zurich were designed to process a total runoff of 600–800 m³ / s at a head of between two and four meters and had a maximum output of 210 hp. Three concentrically arranged blade rings made it possible to adapt the output of the turbine to the available head and the power requirement. The regulation was carried out by covering the guide vanes.
Each turbine drove two double-acting piston pumps arranged in the machine room in a horizontal V arrangement . A vertically arranged, shared air chamber was provided for both pumps .
In the 1960s, the Jonval turbines were gradually replaced by Kaplan turbines .
Distribution network
The distribution network had three different pressure levels: a low pressure level for the drinking water supply, as well as a medium pressure and a high pressure level, which were used for the energy supply. The medium-pressure network, operated at 6.5 bar, had an extension of 82 km in 1896 and supplied 130 Schmid motors , which together had an output of 230 hp. The high pressure network was operated at 14 bar and had an extension of 93 km. It supplied 207 turbines and motors, including drives for elevator systems , with a total output of 3000 HP.
Many turbines were used to drive generators for electrical lighting. In 1887 a power station was built next to the hydroelectric power station, which supplied a direct current network with 110 V voltage and an output of 800 HP, as well as an alternating current network with an output of 600 HP. The generators were driven by a turbine supplied from the pressurized water network.
The pressurized water network was not in competition with the power supply, but complemented it. It was not until the economic crisis of the 1930s that the consumption of pressurized water as an energy source declined. In 1958 the last water motor was shut down.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Patrimoine et sites SIG. (No longer available online.) Services Industriels de Genève, p. 15 , archived from the original on October 3, 2015 ; Retrieved August 30, 2015 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Bâtiment des Forces Motrices. In: GTC. Retrieved September 1, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Pierre-Louis Viollet: Histoire de l'énergie hydraulique: moulins, pompes, roues et turbines de l'Antiquité au XXe siècle . Presses des Ponts, 2005, ISBN 978-2-85978-414-0 ( Google Books [accessed August 30, 2015]).
- ^ A b c d André Ducluzaux: Transporter l'énergie hydraulique à distance, avant l'électricité (1830–1890) . In: La Houille Blanche . No. 4-5 , January 1, 2002, doi : 10.1051 / lhb / 2002054 .
- ↑ Photo - Les vannes du Pont de la Machine 1980. In: www.notrehistoire.ch. Retrieved September 1, 2015 .
- ↑ See also article Pont de la Machine in the French Wikipedia.
- ↑ Et l'Usine devint Théâtre. Bâtiment des forces motrices, accessed August 30, 2015 (French).
- ↑ André Ducluzaux: Transportation l'énergie hydraulique à distance, avant l'électricité (1830-1890) . In: La Houille Blanche . No. 4-5 , January 1, 2002, pp. 29 , doi : 10.1051 / lhb / 2002054 (end of first paragraph in second column).
- ↑ Genève à la force de l'eau - une histoire de l'explotation hyrdaulique (exhibition guide). Musée d'histoire des sciences datum = 2009, accessed on October 8, 2015 (French).
