Water Power: & Dam Construction

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JANUARY 2011
Serving the hydro industry for over 60 years
Developments in dam engineering
Equipment updates
Developments in dam engineering
Back in service
Veteran TBM takes on a new challenge
I N T E R N A T I O N A L
& DAM CONSTRUCTION
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM
JANUARY 2011
& DAM CONSTRUCTION
Water Power
001wp0111fc.indd_CS.indd 1 11/1/11 11:19:48
& DAM CONSTRUCTION
Water Power
CONTENTS
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IN1ERNA1I0NAL WA1ER P0WER & 0AM 00NS1R001I0N - ISSN 0306-400X Volume 63 Number 01 - JANUARY 2011 3
DAM
ENGINEERING
ModernPowerSystems
COMMUNICATING POWER TECHNOLOGY WORLDWIDE
COVER: Learn more about the role a
Robbins TBM is playing on a hydro
project in the Faroe Islands on p30
36
40
32
24
46 PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
48 WORLD MARKETPLACE
R E G U L A R S
4 WORLD NEWS
8 APPOINTMENTS
F E A T U R E S
DAM ENGINEERING
12 The tail end of a story
Sharing experiences of tailings dam development
16 Major advance for minimum energy loss culverts
Charting the development of MEL culverts
20 Engineering on-the-go
New system designed to optimise engineering
22 Influencing engineering
The 20 most influential people in dam engineering
TUNNELLING
24 Multiple challenges
Challenging tunnelling projects in Latin America and Asia
28 Nearing breakthrough at Niagara
An update on work at the North American project
30 Back in service for hydro expansion
Veteran TBM gets back to work on the Eidi project
EQUIPMENT
32 Satellite communications
Delivering communications at remote dam site
34 High alert from High Sierra
Flood warning network plays crucial role
PROJECT UPDATE
36 Developing Dagachhu
Details on the bilateral hydro scheme in Bhutan
SMALL HYDRO
38 Creative design work
Developing a small hydro scheme in China
FISH PASSAGE
40 Water flow monitoring aids fish passage
Helping American Eel pass the St Lawrence dam
RESEARCH
42 Predicting maximum scour depth
Arun Goel presents an estimation of maximum scour
depth downstream of ogee spillways
4 JANUARY 2011 INTERNATIONAL WATER POWER & DAM CONSTRUCTION
WORLD NEWS
I
NTERNATIONAL HYDROPOWER
Associ ati on (I HA) members
have confi rmed support for
the Associations adoption of the
revised Hydropower Sustainability
Assessment Protocol, ensuring that
the Protocol excels as a sustain-
ability assessment tool to measure
and guide performance in the hydro-
power sector.
IHAs adoption of the Hydropower
Sustainability Assessment Protocol
follows a two and a half year collabo-
rative journey, with representatives
from different sectors, resulting in
signifcant review and redrafting of
the Associations previous 2006
Protocol.
The Protocol is the product of con-
siderable effort by parties represent-
ed in the Hydropower Sustainability
Assessment Forum. The Forum,
assisted by associated reference
groups, has been deeply involved in
research, analyses, meetings, out-
reach, trialling, review, exchanging
views, negotiating content and fnd-
ing solutions to divergent views. The
revised Protocol reflects a shared
vision that it will make a signifcant
contribution to advancing sustain-
able hydropower.
The adoption process started in
September 2010, with the IHA Board
recommending that the Protocol be
adopted by the Association, in place
of its 2006 version. The IHA Board
also set the stage for future devel-
opment and improvement of the
Protocol by recommending that the
Protocol tools should be subject to
periodic updating, incorporating the
experience gained through ongoing
consultation and its application. In
accordance with its constitution, IHA
issued a Board Resolution in support
of adoption to its members and, fol-
lowing a consultation period where
there was overwhelming support in
favour of adoption, the Protocol is
now offcially adopted.
This adoption also marks the start
of a new process of investigating
future developments surrounding the
Protocol. IHA is once again embark-
ing on a cross-sectorial collaborative
process, working closely with partners
for the next phase of the Protocols
ongoing development.
Considerable progress has already
been made in the investigation of a
governance model for Protocol imple-
mentation with a meeting being
held between IHA and its partners
in November, which resulted in the
development of a framework for the
incorporation of an interim entity to
guide the process. IHA. The fruits
of this work will be presented at the
next IHA World Congress, which will
be held Iguassu, Brazil, during 14-17
June 2011.
Commenting on members sup-
port for Protocol adoption, IHA
Executive Director, Richard Taylor,
said: The call to adopt the revised
Protocol resulted in the Associations
membership clearly indicating its
support for the Protocols role as
a sustainability assessment tool to
measure and guide performance in
the sector.
The 2006 Protocol has under-
gone a significant review and
redrafting over the past two and
a half years, under the guidance
of the Hydropower Sustainability
Assessment Forum. IHAs Board
believes that the tools contained in
the Protocol can make a signifcant
contribution to the advancement of
sustainable hydropower. We acknowl-
edge the considerable work that was
undertaken by all the members of the
Forum to deliver the revised version,
Taylor added.
IHA adopts the Hydropower
Sustainability Assessment Protocol
Finance secured for Cheves project, Peru
I
FC, A MEMBER OF THE WORLD
Bank Group, will provide long-term
fnancing of up to US$250M to help
build the 168MW Cheves hydropower
project in Peru, project developer SN
Power has announced.
I FC together wi th DnBNOR,
Nordea, West LB and Soci ete
Generale were mandated joint lead
arrangers in June 2010. IFC and
DnBNORs willingness to provide the
very long tenors of 20 years, and the
other commercial banks providing 17
years, were essential to allow for the
fnancial viability of this investment.
This is a key milestone ensuring
the funds for the construction of the
project, said Nils Huseby, Executive
Vice President South America. The
timely closing of this financing
has been the result of good team
work both in the SN Power organi-
zation and among the fve lending
institutions. SN Powers experience
in working with IFC and the good
cooperation from the commercial
banks makes this a benchmark for
future deals.
DnBNOR has supported SN Power
in several deals in Chile, and will
also participate in the refnancing of
SN Power Peru, which is taking place
in parallel to the Cheves fnancing.
Nordea has, in addition to Cheves,
been another fnancial key supporter
of SN Powers two hydro projects in
Chile. West LB and Societe Generale
are new investors to SN Power.
Located on the Huaura River,
250km north of Lima, Cheves is one
of the very few hydropower projects
developed in Peru in the last decade
and therefore represents a corner-
stone in Perus goal to promote the
use of largely untapped renewable
energy resources.
SN Power, through the project com-
pany Empresa de Generacin Elctrica
Cheves SA, will build and operate the
plant. Construction starts in January
2011 with completion in 2014.
This project shows our commit-
ment to developing renewable-energy
resources in Peru and other emerg-
ing markets, said Huseby. It also
sends a positive signal to developers
and fnanciers regarding the invest-
ment opportunities in Perus renew-
able-energy sector and availability of
long-term fnancing.
Cheves is expected to produce
about 836GWh of electricity annu-
ally starting in 2014. The increase
in energy supply will serve individual
households and industrial clients,
such as mining projects.
Civil works on the project are
being carried out by a Joint Venture
between Hochtief Construction AG,
Empresa Constructora Tecsa S.A.
and ICCGSA Ingenieros Civiles y
Contratistas Generales S.A. Other
frms involved in the project include
Rainpower, Jeumont Electric, ABB,
Abengoa Peru, Cempro Tech and
Norconsult Peru.
Alstom, RusHydro in Russian hydropower agreement
A
LSTOM POWER HAS SIGNED A
strategic cooperation agreement
with Russian power generation
company RusHydro that will see the
frms work together to exploit opportu-
nities in the booming Russian hydro-
power industry.
The agreement covers four key direc-
tions of cooperation: reconstruction
and modernisation of the Kubanski
cascade hydropower complex in
Southern Russia; cooperation for the
development of hydropower activi-
ties; cooperation in areas of R&D and
investment; and local manufacturing of
hydropower equipment in the Republic
of Bashkortostan, Russia.
The Kubanski cascade project will
include the installation of a new instru-
mentation and control system as well
as a site security system, following an
earlier Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) signed between the two parties
in September 2010.
The agreement was signed yester-
day in the presence of Vladimir Putin,
Russian Prime Minister, Francois
Fillon, French Prime Minister, Sergei
Shmatko, Russian Energy Minister,
Patrick Kron, Chairman and CEO of
Alstom and Philippe Joubert, President
of Alstom Power.
As well as the agreement with
RusHydro, Alstom also signed deals
with other major Russian energy com-
panies that will see the company pro-
vide power generation products and
services for Russias thermal power
generation, nuclear power generation
and electricity transmission sectors.
WWW.WATERPOWERMAGAZINE.COM JANUARY 2011 5
WORLD NEWS
T
HE ENVIRONMENT COURT HAS
approved resource consents
for Trustpowers two new hydro
schemes on New Zealands South
Island Arnold on the West coast,
and Wairau in Marlborough.
The proposed 46MW Arnold
scheme will generate enough electric-
ity to make the West Coast largely
self suffcient, reducing transmission
losses and improving security of
supply. It will use generators in an
18km canal running from the existing
Arnold hydro dam and then returning
water to the river. The primary release
back to the river from a regulation
pond will be via an international
standard White Water course, which,
once constructed, will be operated by
a community trust.
TrustPower will now carry out
detailed technical design and geotech-
nical work prior to presenting its devel-
opment case to its Board of Directors
for approval. That work is expected to
be complete within 12 months, allow-
ing construction to potentially begin
in 2012. During a projected 18-24
month construction phase, the Arnold
project will result in a significant
increase in jobs and expenditure for
the West Coast economy, as the con-
struction work will be labour intensive
and require an estimated workforce of
up to 200. The scheme is estimated
to cost around $180 200M.
The proposed 72MW Wairau
scheme will divert water from the
Wairau River above the existing
11MW Branch River hydro scheme,
though a 49km canal and six gen-
erators, before returning the water to
the river. The existing 1 Branch River
hydro Scheme consists of a 7.2MW
power station on the banks of the
Wairau River and a 3.8MW station
on the Branch River, a tributary of
the Wairau.
The Wairau scheme is also
designed to improve security of
supply and reduce transmission
losses as more electricity will be
generated locally rather than import-
ing it from other regions. Currently
only 16% of Marlboroughs energy is
produced locally. The addition of the
Wairau scheme will increase this to
over 40%, through the addition of the
schemes generation capacity produc-
ing 367GWh per annum.
The scheme includes the provision
of two dedicated recreational areas
for public use, and estimates of the
cost of the project are in the range of
$280 320M.
The Arnold project will precede
Wairau, with detailed geotechnical
studies and technical design for the
Wairau scheme expected to take up
to two years.
Environment Court
approves TrustPower
hydro schemes
From the Editor
Dear readers,
Welcome to the first issue of International Water
Power & Dam Construction of 2011. This issue
youll see we focus on the areas of dam engineering
and tunnelling, both hot topics in the industry
right now. Construction has started recently on
some major hydro schemes which require extensive
tunnelling work, and we take a look at just a few
of these in our project update article starting on
p24. Here youll discover how a range of challenges
have presented themselves to project developers
in terms of scale, layout and ground conditions. It
is interesting to note how these challenges have
been addressed and the different methods being
used on these projects. Sharing such experiences is
invaluable for other project developers as it offers
an important reference should similar problems be
encountered elsewhere.
This issue is also brought to the forefront in an
article by South African civil engineer Jack Caldwell
starting on p12 that looks at the construction of
tailings dams. In a no-holds barred piece, Caldwell
lets us know what he thinks are the key points
in building a successful tailings dam, and details
lessons learned from dam failures. Could his ideas
help you in building your tailings dam projects?
Another special feature included this month is our
listing of the 20 most influential people in dam
engineering over the last 10 years. This listing was
compiled using your nominations, with the final
line-up decided by the IWP&DC team. We had a
great response to our call for nominations, and
it was interesting to see there was a great cross-
section of people nominated, with each person
included having received multiple nominations.
Please take a look at the list and share your
thoughts with me. Im always interested in receiving
correspondence from our readers its important
we get your views on the subjects we cover in the
magazine. Do you agree with the final line-up? Do
you think other people should have been included?
What other listings do you think we should look to
publish? Email me at the address below or tel: +44
(0) 208 269 7777.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes
Carrieann Stocks
Editor
Email: carrieannstocks@globaltrademedia.com
EBRD loan for Macedonia
T
HE EUROPEAN BANK FOR
Reconstruction and Development
has approved a EUR6M loan
to Mali Hidro Elektrani d.o.o. (MHE),
a locally-owned renewable energy
company, to fnance the development
of seven small hydro power plants in
the country.
Located on seven different rivers
throughout the country the power
plants will have a total generation
capacity of up to 5.83MW and will pro-
duce on average about 21,630MWh of
electricity per year.
MHEs generating facilities will be
interconnected to the Macedonian
distribution grid and the company will
beneft from the preferential purchase
agreements with the Macedonian
Transmission System Operator and
special tariff scheme for renewable
energy projects.
This investment is EBRDs frst pri-
vate sector energy generation invest-
ment in FYR Macedonia and it is being
fnanced through the Western Balkans
Sustainable Energy Direct Funding
Facility. Upon completion, the project
will lead to reduction of CO2 emis-
sions estimated at close to 14,000
tonnes per year.
The project is complemented by
technical assistance funds provided
by the Western Balkans Fund, the
EBRD Shareholders Special Fund and
the Norwegian government. Upon
successful completion of the project,
MHE will be eligible to receive an
incentive payment for reducing the
CO2 emissions of the Macedonian
power sector. This incentive payment
is provided by the Western Balkans
Fund, the EBRD Shareholders Special
Fund and the EU.
WORLD NEWS
In brief
RUSSIAN ELECTRICITY
frm EuroSibEnergo and
China Yangtze Power Co
have agreed to establish
a joint venture to build
new hydroelectric projects
in Russia. According to
reports from RIA Novosti,
the JV will be established
on a parity basis, and will
investigate the develop-
ment of six projects over
the next three years with
an installed capacity of
over 10,000MW. China
Yangtze is then expected
to arrange fnancing from
Chinese lenders, depend-
ing on the outcome of
project feasibility studies.
AFTER RELYING
exclusively on thermal
generation for more
than 110 years, Indian
power company CESC
has announced plans to
diversify into hydroelec-
tricity generation with
involvement in the 90MW
Jarong hydro scheme in
Arunachal Pradesh. The
project, which has already
received approval from
the Arunchal Pradesh
Government, will involve
the construction of a
diversion barrage across
the river Siyom near the
village of Jarong
PROFESSIONAL SERV-
ICES frm SMEC has been
awarded a contract to
carry out feasibility studies
for a pumped storage addi-
tion to the 360MW Magat
hydroelectric project on
the island of Luzon in the
Philippines. The Magat
power facilty draws water
from the Magat dam, a
large rock-fll dam on
Magat River, a major
tributary of Cagayan
River. The Magat project
is owned and operated by
SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP).
Small hydro studies get funding
T
HE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
of Newfoundland and Labrador
in Canada has approved funding
of $2.5M to study the potential for
small-scale hydroelectric projects.
T he f unds, pr ov i ded t o
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro
(NLH), will study projects that
would benefit Labrador coastal
communities.
Our government recognizes the
need for reliable and clean power
for residents of Labradors coastal
communities, said the Honourable
Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural
Resources. Newfoundland and
Labrador Hydro has been studying
the use of small-scale hydroelectric
developments which could provide
reliable, clean and available power to
coastal communities and the results
have been encouraging. We are pro-
viding $2.5 million for the continua-
tion of this research in order to further
explore the natural resources of
Labrador and their potential to provide
power to surrounding communities.
The Coastal Labrador Alternative
Energy Study was conducted by NLH
to determine if alternative energy
projects might be feasible to provide
power to Labrador coastal communi-
ties. Results of this study were posi-
tive and Newfoundland and Labrador
Hydro believes further work is warrant-
ed to explore the potential of small-
scale hydroelectric development in
greater detail.
Many of the Labrador coastal com-
munities are serviced by diesel stations
which provide electricity to residents,
said the Honourable John Hickey,
Minister of Labrador Affairs. While the
Provincial Government provides almost
$20M annually through grants and
subsidies for electricity users in these
communities, we are hopeful that this
study will provide alternative methods
of providing reliable and clean power to
these households.
Through the Northern Strategic
Plan, the Rural Defcit Subsidy, the
Rate Deferral Subsidy for Diesel
Service Areas and the Enhanced
Home Heating Rebate, the Provincial
Government has endeavoured to
keep rates in coastal communities as
low as possible and comparable with
the Labrador Interconnected residen-
tial rate. Budget 2008 also provided
$250,000 to support the Coastal
Labrador Alternative Energy Study.
Further to the research to be
carried out by NLH, the Northern
Strategic Plan committed to reviewing
commercial rates in Labrador coastal
communities with the view of introduc-
ing a comparable rate upon sanction
of the Lower Churchill Project.
Voith wins Venda Nova III contract
V
OITH HYDRO, AS THE LEADER
in a consortium with Siemens
Portugal, is to supply the com-
plete electromechanical equipment
for two reversible pumped storage
units at the Venda Nova III project
in Portugual following the award of a
EUR122M contract from Energias de
Portugal (EDP).
The company will supply two
pumped storage units with variable
speed, each with 380MW rated
power in turbine mode, two asyn-
chronous motor generators with
a rated capacity of 420 megavolt
ampere, frequency converters, con-
trol system and the hydraulic steel
structures.
Thanks to their variable speed,
the pumped storage units of Venda
Nova III can adapt their number of
revolutions continuously and take
capacities from the grid in the range
between 319 and 380MW. Units
with fxed speed do not provide this
range their pumping power is regu-
lated with the aid of further units or
plants. For the development of wind
power, whose supply capacities
are intermittent and not precisely
predi ctabl e, provi di ng fl exi bl e
reserve, however, plays a crucial
role. In combination with variable
speed pumped storage, wind power
plants become more reliable and
more proftable.
Venda Nova III is a milestone
in hydro power: variable speed
technology supports direct grid con-
trol, commented Dr. Siegbert Etter,
Executive Vice President Technology
of Voith Hydro Holding. In the era
of renewable energies this is the
new role pumped storage plants
are playing.
Venda Nova III is expected to be
connected to the grid in early 2015
to support wind power in Portugal.
NIB nances new hydro station in Greenland
T
HE NORDIC INVESTMENT BANK
(NIB) has approved a EUR 33.5M
loan to the Greenland Self
Rule Government to finance the
construction of a new hydropower
station near Sisimiut, on the western
coast of Greenland.
The 15-year-maturity loan will help
fund the construction of the new
plant, which was offcially opened in
April 2010. The plant is expected to
generate 52GWh this year and will
replace two diesel generators in the
town of Sisimiut.
Due to its geography and climate,
Greenland is dependent on local
electricity production. Until now, the
diesel generators have been the only
source of electricity for the 6,000
inhabitants of Sisimiut.
We are pleased to be a contrib-
uting factor to the shutting down
of the fossil fuel run power station
in Sisimiut. The new hydropower
plant will silence the polluting diesel
generators, leading to improved air
quality, lower noise levels, and not
least access to more reliable and
affordable electricity for the popu-
lation of Greenland, says Nordic
Investment Banks President and
CEO Johnny kerholm.
The Gr eenl and Sel f Rul e
Government will on-lend the NIB-
loan to the local energy company,
Nukissiorfit.
Nam Theun 2
inaugurated
T
HE 1070MW NAM THEUN 2
transbasin hydropower scheme
was offcially inaugurated in Lao
PDR in early December 2010.
The project a long-term collabo-
rative effort between Lao PDR and
neighbouring Thailand diverts the
upper flow of the Nam Theun river
from the Nakai plateau, into the Xe
Bang Fai river in the Khammouane
plain in Lao PDR. It is capable of pro-
ducing 6000GWh per year.
Over 90% of the electricity gener-
ated by the project is being sold to
Thailand, providing Lao PDR with a
$2B revenue stream over the next 25
years. Commercial experts of electric-
ity began back in March last year.
Laotian leaders were joined by
Thailands prime minister Abhisit
Vejjajiva as well international leaders
at the inauguration ceremony.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor,
I was interested to read the various comments
in your recent article on the WCD ten years on
(IWP&DC November 2010). After the release of
the report of the World Commission on Dams
(WCD) in November 2000, the South African
National Committee on Large Dams (SANCOLD)
initiated a symposium on the topic to ascertain
the applicability of the WCD recommendations
within a South African context. At the same
time environmental lobby groups requested
the Minister of Water Affairs to hold a multi-
stakeholder workshop on the WCD. These ini-
tiatives were combined in a single process as
described below.
A multi-stakeholder symposium was held in
July 2001, to establish the gap between South
African practice and the WCD report. The sympo-
sium concluded that it is broadly supportive of
the WCD priorities and a multi-stakeholder steer-
ing committee was established to investigate
and document the gaps between South African
practice and the WCD strategic priorities.
Several meetings and forums were held
and this action culminated in the Substantive
Report on Applying the World Commission on
Dams Report in South Africa, November 2004.
A summary report on the topic can be download-
ed from the SANCOLD website, www.sancold.
org.za under archived news.
During this WCD review period, the Department
of Water Affairs undertook a social audit on a
number of dams to ascertain issues relating
to relocation/resettlement and compensation.
Remedial actions were determined.
Just prior to the release of the WCD Report,
the Berg Water Project, which included a large
dam for the augmentation of water supply to
the City of Cape Town, was ready for Ministerial
approval to implement. The WCD report neces-
sitated a review of the planning process to
ascertain the degree of compliance with the
WCD guidelines. It was concluded that the
planning process did indeed meet, and in some
instances exceeded the guideline requirements
and project implementation was approved. The
Berg Water Project was completed in November
2007. The implementing authority and owner
(Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority) is currently
undertaking a study to determine project com-
pliance with the WCD report. Transparency
International together with the World Bank has
undertaken a case study on the project with a
particular focus on governance, sustainability
and communication, all of which are elements
of the WCD report.
The purpose of the South African multi-stake-
holder initiative was to build consensus on how
we should respond to the WCD report and how
here in South Africa we can improve our deci-
sion-making on dams the ultimate purpose of
the whole process.
It is gratifying to report that many of the
recommendations of the SA Multi-Stakeholder
Initiative have now been incorporated into the
normal procedures for the planning and imple-
mentation of large dams.
Paul Roberts
Secretary: SANCOLD
secretary@sancold.org.za
Dear Editor,
We are indeed very familiar with the history of
the World Commission on Dams (WCD) because
the Swiss Committee on Dams, as one of the
90 member countries of ICOLD, was directly con-
cerned in this process.
Many comments on the WCD report were pub-
lished during the three years following the confer-
ence of 16 November 2000 in London, where the
report was launched. The most important assess-
ments were issued by large and very experienced
international organisations, such as: ICOLD,
the International Commission on Irrigation and
Drainage (ICID) and the International Hydropower
Association (IHA).
Great attention was given to the analysis of the
report and some synthetic conclusions were drawn,
with all the necessary nuances. The detailed state-
ment of the Swiss Committee after the publication
of the WCD Report in 2001 has not changed.
The WCDs objective was to provide a frame-
work for options assessment and decision-
making in water and energy development, and
to set out criteria and guidelines for the design,
construction, operation and decommissioning of
large dams. Another objective was to bring new
voices into the procedure, in order to win greater
public acceptance.
While this intention may have been laudable, it
appeared, and the article of Patrick McCully [2] is
clear on that matter, that the initiators of the proc-
ess (principally the International Rivers Network
International Union for Conservation of Nature
and Natural Resources and the World Banks
Operations Evaluation Department) were strongly
infuenced by extreme anti-dam NGOs. The organi-
sation of the WCD was thus biased and its various
elements were manipulated (such as the appoint-
ment of commissioners, choice of case studies,
regional consultations, forum meetings and publi-
cation of the fnal report), and considered unfair.
We should highlight the efficient actions of
one particularly skilful gentleman, Achim Steiner
who was Secretary General of the WCD. In 2001
he became Director General of the IUCN, and in
2006 he was appointed as Executive Director
of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP). We hope that today, in his important posi-
tion, he has not forgotten the message eloquently
expressed by Nelson Mandela at the WCD launch:
The problem, though, is not the dams. It is the
hunger. It is the thirst. It is the darkness of a town-
ship. It is township and rural huts without running
water, lights or sanitation. It is time wasted in
gathering water by hand. There is a real pressing
need for power in every sense of the word.
Finally there was no consensus on the com-
mission report, and the WCD decided that an
intense phase of dissemination would be under-
taken to convince governments, fnancial institu-
tions and the private sector to adopt the WCD
guidelines. The reaction was globally negative,
and the guidelines were explicitly rejected by
major institutions, including the World Bank, and
especially by the developing countries.
The total expenses of the WCD totalled about
US$10M [3], mainly fnanced by governments
and aid agencies (63%), foundations and NGOs
(16%). In addition several million dollars were
spent later on dissemination of the report.
Nobody can be proud of this very expensive
and unsuccessful exercise, and we have no
reason to blow the trumpet of the WCD for a
tenth non-event.
To fnish on a positive note, we can observe
that since 2000, the countries that needed
dams and wanted to continue to build them did
so. Those who looked for an excuse not to build
them delayed some projects, with the associ-
ated negative effects on local populations and
national economies in terms of delayed water
and energy benefts.
In 2000, the number of large dams in the
world was 45,000; over the past ten years there
has generally been a steady increase in dam con-
struction up to 50,000, and more than 330 major
dams higher than 60m are under construction
today. By 2050 the total number of large dams is
estimated to reach 65,000.
There is an essential reason for this: precipita-
tions on our Blue Planet are not equally distrib-
uted in time and space. It is therefore essential
to store runoff water to meet basic human needs,
without of course neglecting a fundamental cul-
tural aspect: the environment.
Yours sincerely
Professor Anton Schleiss
President, Swiss Committee on Dams

[1] ICOLD. About the WCD Report Dams and
Development. (2001)
[2] P. McCully. The use of a trilateral network:
An activists perspective on the formation of the
World Commission on Dams. American University
International Law Review 16. (2001) .
[3] WCD. World Commission on Dams Project.
Financial Report. March. 1998-April 2001.
Send your letters to the editor
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DIARY OF EVENTS
DIARY
February
15-17 February
6th International Conference on
Dam Engineering
Lisbon, Portugal
CONTACT: Eliane Portela , LNEC,
Concrete Dams Department,
LNEC, Av. Brasil 101, 1700-066,
Lisbon, Portugal.
Tel: (351) 218443361.
Fax: (351) 218443026.
Email: eliane@lnec.pt.
http://dam11.lnec.pt.
22-24 February
Underwater Intervention 2011
New Orleans, LA, US
CONTACT: Unde r wa t e r
Intervention 2011 Committee ,
5206 FM 1960 West, Suite 202
Houston, TX 77069 USA.
Tel: +1 281-893-8539.
Fax +1 281-893-511.
Email: rroberts@adc-int.org.
www.underwaterintervention.com.
March
8-9 March
PTK 2011: Norwegian Power
Production Conference
Oslo, Norway
CONTACT: Energy Norway, PO
Box 7184 Majorstuen, N-0307
Oslo, Norway.
Tel: +47 23 08 8900.
Email: ptk@energinorge.no.
15-16 March
Case Studies Workshop: Learning
from International Dam Incidents
and Failures
Las Vegas, Nevada, US
CONTACT: CEATI International,
1010 Sherbrooke St W, Suite 2500,
Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 2R7.
Email: workshops@ceati.com.
www.ceati.com/Meetings/DS2011/
index.html.
28-30 March
HydroVision Russia
Moscow, Russia
CONTACT: Mathilde Sueur,
Conference Manager, PennWell.
Tel: +44 1992 656 634.
Fax: +44 1992 656 735.
E: mathildes@pennwell.com.
www.hydrovision-russia.com.
April
11-15 April
United States Society on Dams
2011 Annual Meet i ng and
Conference
San Diego, California, US
CONTACT: United States Society
on Dams, 1616 Seventeenth Street
#483, Denver CO 80202, US
Tel: +1 303-628-5430.
Fax: +1 303-628-5431.
13-15 April
Small Hydro 2011
Vancouver, Canada
CONTACT: Ms Eman El-Labban,
Arena International.
Tel: +44207 336 5248.
Email: EmanEl-Labban@arena-
international.com.
http://www.arena-international.
com/smallhydro.
15-17 April
Energy Effciency and Renewable
Energy Sources for South-East
Europe
Sofa, Bulgaria
CONTACT: Via Expo Ltd, 3
Chehov Square, Plovdiv 4003,
Bulgaria.
Fax: +359 32 945 459.
Email: offce@viaexpo.com.
http://viaexpo.com.
May
5-7 May
HydroVision India
New Delhi, India
CONTACT: Amanda Kevan,
PennWell Corp, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 1992 656 645.
Fax: +44 1992 656 700.
Email: amandak@pennwell.com.
http://www.hydrovisionindia.com.
16-20 May
2 5 t h Eu r o p e a n Re g i o n a l
Conference of ICID
Groningen, The Netherlands
CONTACT: Bert Toussaint,
Chairman of the Organizing
Committee, Ministry of Transport,
Public Works & Water Management,
Rijkswaterstaat Centre for Corporate
Services, PO Box 2232, NL-3500 GE
Utrecht, Netherlands
Tel: +31 62 079 1372
Email: bert.toussaint@rws.nl.
www.nethcid.nl.
23-26 May
Hidroenergia
Wroclaw, Poland
CONTACT: European Small
Hydropower Association (ESHA).
Tel: +32 2 546 1945 .
Fax: +32 2 546 1947.
Email: info@esha.be
www.esha.be.
29 May - 3 June
79th Annual Meeting of ICOLD
Lucerne, Switzerland
CONTACT: Swiss Committee
on Dams, c/o Stucky Consulting
Engineers.
Email: swissdams@stucky.ch
http://www.swissdams.ch
June
7-9 June
Power-Gen Europe 2011
Milan, Italy
CONTACT: PennWell Publishing
UK Ltd, Warlies Park House,
Horseshoe Hill, Upshire, Essex,
EN9 3SR, UK.
www.powergeneurope.com.
14-17 June
IHAs 2011 World Congress
Iguassu Falls, Brazil
CONTACT: I nt e r nat i onal
Hydropower Association, Nine Sutton
Court Road, Sutton, Surrey. United
Kingdom, SM1 4SZ
Tel: +44 20 8652 5290.
Email: congress@hydropower.org.
http://www.hydropower.org.
15-18 June
II Optimization of Constructions
Methods of CFRDs
Yichang, China
CONTACT: HydrOu China, No
41-210 Three Gorges Community,
Zhenping Road, Yichang city, Hubei
443002, China.
Tel: +86717 672-2137.
Email: hydrou@hydrou.com.
http://hydrou.com.
20-21 June
APEMEC 2011 (Small Hydro
Trade Fair & Conference)
Santiago, Chile
CONTACT: APEMEC.
Tel: +56 2 344 0044
Email: info@apemec.cl
Website: http://www.apemec.cl
July
19-22 July
HydroVision 2011
California, US
CONTACT: Libby Smith, Conference
Manager, PennWell.
Tel: +1 (918) 831-9560
Email: hvconference@pennwell.com
September
5-7 September
3rd Australasian Hydro Power
Conference
Queenstown, New Zealand
CONTACT: John Schurink.
Tel: +64 3 3646607.
Email: schurinkj@mace-eng.co.nz.
www.hydroconference.co.nz.
25-28 September
Semi nar on Operat i on and
Maintenance of CFRDs
Yichang Three Gorges, China
CONTACT: HydrOu China, No
41-210 Three Gorges Community,
Zhenping Road, Yichang city, Hubei
443002, China.
Tel: +86717 672-2137.
Email: hydrou@hydrou.com.
h t t p : / / h y d r o u . c o m/ i n d e x .
php/ 2010080760/ Workshop/
optimal-operation-management-
on-cfrds.html
25-29 September
Dam Safety 2011
Washington DC, US
CONTACT: Association of State
Dam Safety Offcials.
info@damsafety.org.
www.damsafety.org.
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ISES
DAM ENGINEERING
The tail end of a story
Born on a gold mine in South Africa, Jack Caldwell grew up around the slimes dams.
He was educated as a civil engineer on a mining scholarship at the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Since then he has consulted with mine owners the world
over on the design, operation and closure of tailings impoundments. Here he gives a
personal and straight-talking account of how to build successful tailings dams
T
HE Teton dam failed in Idaho in 1976. It had been
designed by the US Bureau of Reclamation and a group
of experienced dam engineers. Eight years later, and
I had just been retained to help design and construct
the Cannon Mine tailings impoundment in Wenatchee, Washington
state. Our site had the same rock strata as those that had piped
and reportedly caused the failure of the Teton dam. Preliminary
analyses showed that we needed an embankment at least
91m high to retain the tailings. The embankment eventually
rose to a height of 103m, making it the highest privately owned
dam in Washington.
Then, as now, tailings dams failed at a far greater rate than
conventional water-retaining dams; and their failure caused great
damage. We were nervous. Syd Hillis came to our rescue. He had
been the chief geotechnical engineer on Tarbela, the largest earthern
dam in the world. He had also been the chief geotechnical engineer
for the Revelstoke dam, then the highest earth dam in the world.
Now he was a private consultant and a peer reviewer of dams
funded by the Asian Development Bank.
We met; we argued; we fought; and we became frm friends. I moved
to Wenatchee to design the dam as we went. There was no money in
the mines budget for site investigation, we did it as we stripped the
soils. Syd came down once a month. He walked the site with me. He
Below: The author stands at Greens Creek dray stack tailings impoundment
in Alaska. A lter-pressed, dry stack approach is becoming more popular
and an ideal way to dispose of tailings in a safe, sound and environmentally
protective manner
DAM ENGINEERING
felt and tasted the soil; who is allowed to do that these days? And
he insisted on conservative measures: flters placed every place piping
was conceivable; flters upgradient and downgradient of the core, just
in case cracking occurred; compacted rockfll; and large drains. The
embankment was built above some 20,000 homes and stands today,
reclaimed and the home of the Dry Gulch Riding Stables.
Proud as I am of this embankment that was built to the high-
est standards of any water dam, I have to admit that long before
this I had designed a tailings impoundment that failed some years
after initial construction. That was for the De Beer Diamond Mine
in Kimberley, South Africa. Nobody was hurt; no environmental
damage was done; it is not even listed in those long lists of tailings
dam failures you fnd on the web.
I had started a life-long career in tailings dams as a child in South
Africa, doing the forbidden riding around slimes dams of the mine
where I grew up. My frst job out of university was supervising the
pouring of concrete for construction of the Hendrik Verwoed dam on
the Orange River. That dam is now called the Gariep dam in honour
of vast political change in South Africa.
As a masters student at university, I helped Professor Jennings
investigate the failure of the Bafokeng slimes dam that killed 13. I got
to talk so fast, they gave me the job of designing the new one; it is still
in operation and easily seen on Google. But the difference between
the attention paid to the design, construction, and operation of the
Hendrik Verwoed dam and the Bafokeng dams, old and new, readily
established why tailings dams fail more frequently than water dams.
Now nearly 65 years of age, I still consult on tailings dams. I am
currently involved with tailings dams in Guatemala, Alberta, the
Northwest Territories, and a small country in Africa that prefers to
remain unnamed. I am obsessed with potential failure of the tail-
ings facilities that I touch, and hence I write to explore reasons why
tailings dams fail so often. And I seek ways to prevent the terrible
frequency of tailings dam failure. Here are few ideas.
FAILURE OF A SYSTEM
I am no fan of attempts to ascribe failure of earth embankments,
whether for tailings or water, to single causes. You know the typi-
cal list: foundation sliding; differential settlement; too much water;
overtopping; piping; bad design; and so on. On the basis of real-life
experience and much reading and thinking, I must conclude that the
failure of dams, for tailings and water, is a failure of the system. That
is the system by which the dam is regulated, permitted, designed,
constructed, operated, monitored, and closed.
I believe that we need the following to reduce dam failure: good
laws and regulations; the best designers and engineers; plus consistent
and regular peer review.
In the absence of good laws and clear regulations, the designer
is adrift subject to the whims and whiles of owners who seek to
reduce costs, cut corners, and do less than is necessary. Right now I
am fretting over a water-retaining structure that was designed where
there is no law, and the least possible was done. The dikes are failing
and I am faced with telling the owners to spend a lot to upgrade or
abandon the facility and build a new one. I am not popular and may
be replaced by other consultants. So be it.
If the regulator is inexperienced, uneducated, or inattentive, they
will permit any bad old design presented to them. They fail their
public trust and duty. In too many countries where mines are devel-
oped, it is a simple matter to beguile the regulator, or worse to bribe
them. The resulting dams are at high risk of failure.
Sad to say, but there are good consultants and there are bad
consultants. There are too few good consultants to do all the work.
Bad consultants do design dams and these often fail. Such facts
are not listed in causes of failure, but I challenge investigators and
historians to test my thesis that bad designers are a signifcant con-
tributor to dam failure.
Then we have failure to peer review. Syd Hillis taught me the value
of peer review. Without him, the Cannon Mine dam would not be
what it is: safe and secure and likely to last for as long as I can con-
ceive a new geomorphic form in the landscape. I have produced
designs that have been reviewed by other peers. When you assemble
a team, at least three strong, of honest engineers, you cannot but suc-
ceed. As an owner you are assured things are properly done; as the
design engineer, you know you are up to par; and as a member of the
public, you can be assured you are safe. Thus I list these minimum
desiderata for a safe dam, for water and/or for tailings:
Appropriate laws and regulations.
Trained and conscientious regulators and permit granters.
The best design engineers you can assemble and afford.
Focus on site selection, site characterisation, testing, and analyses,
more analyses, and profound judgment.
Peer review at every stage of design, construction, operation
and closure.
Above: A prototype cover for Suncor pond 5 tailings in Alberta
DAM ENGINEERING
Informed and interested operators, who measure, monitor and
report every observation.
A maintenance and monitoring plan that can be communicated,
understood and implemented.
Transparency and regular reporting to a public body that posts the
reports of design and operation on a readily accessible web site.
My theory is that no dam fails for a single reason. In every case of
failure that I have been associated with, there are at least ten things
that went wrong before failure occurred. I know from personal expe-
rience, that at all dams there are always ten things wrong. But not
all dams fail. It is only when the stars malignantly align, when the
ten wrong things line up in a negative way, that failure occurs and
people die. (Nothing new or insightful in this observation/conclu-
sion.) Standard accident avoidance theory and practice is that for
every 100 incidents, there is one accident. For every 30 accidents,
there is one death (the ratios vary depending on whom you believe
but the idea is sound.) It is the obvious pyramid of events: control the
incidents, and you eliminate the accidents and deaths.
If an incident is defned as a small, irritating occurrence with no par-
ticular consequence, you may readily and graciously investigate the
incident and put in place practices to prevent recurrence. I learnt this
as chief geotechnical engineer on closure of the Operating Industries
Landfll just to the east of Los Angeles. This 526,000m
2
landfll is the
largest hazardous waste landfll on the US Environmental Protection
Agencys superfund list. The slopes rise at 1.4: 1.0 that is steep. And
the slopes rise some 91m above I60, a six-lane freeway exiting the
city. The landfll is underlain by an active fault. I felt an earthquake
one day, and we swayed like jelly on the soft waste beneath.
I was digging and profling test pits on the steep slopes. A clod
broke free of the pile of excavated soil. The clod rolled down the
slope, jumped onto the freeway and hit the side of a passing car. It
indented the car door, leaving a dirty brown patch. This incident
was carefully investigated. The result: a US$100,000 plywood bar-
ricade between the landfll and the freeway. We went on to complete
US$100M of work safely. We owe our success to Jill Saminago who,
as our health and safety offcer, insisted on incident investigation and
control as the way to save lives.
The lesson learnt from that story is that at every dam, at every
stage of construction and operation, have and implement an Incident
Control Plan.
According to my agreement with the editor of this magazine,
I have but fve-hundred words left to make my case. Let me use these
remaining words to acknowledge Terzaghi and Peck. Terzaghi is the
father of soil mechanics; it is he who frst enunciated the basic princi-
ples of the control of soil and the fow of fuids through soils some-
thing that happens at all dams. Starting as a professor in Vienna in
the 1930s, he went on to a career as a soils mechanics and dam design
consultant. He is coauthor with Peck, his student, of what is still the
best book on the topic today, namely Soil Mechanics in Engineering
Practice. Recently updated by Mesri, it is still on my shelf; I read sec-
tions every so often to remind me of good practice; I make all young
engineers who come my way read it so that we have a common basis
of understanding.
Terzaghi taught the professor who taught me geotechnical engi-
neering. In Albuquerque, my offce overlooked the suburb in to which
Peck retired; he often came to the local engineers meetings and chat-
ted with all of us as locals, as we all were. From him and his writ-
ings, alone and with Terzaghi, I learnt the dangers of the overlooked
geological discontinuity, and the immense value of the observational
method.
The observational method is easy to state and understand. It is ter-
ribly diffcult, however, to compile and implement an Observational
Method Plan. I have worked on two: one done informally; one done
most carefully and formally. Most other attempts I have observed
have used the words, but failed miserably to catch the intent or apply
the power of the method.
Nevertheless, I must end by insisting that if you want to preclude
failure of your dam, for tailings or water, you must struggle, strive,
and fght to write and implement an Observational Method Plan.
The reality is that dams are geotechnical structures. We cannot estab-
lish perfection in geotechnical conditions; we can make only faint
attempts to model and predict performance; we must therefore moni-
tor and adjust in accordance with a pre-existing plan to the actual
conditions and behaviour of our dam as it is built, flled, operated,
and taken safely to closure.
Jack Caldwells blog on mining and tailings dams can be
found at www.ithinkmining.com
Email: jcaldwell@robertsongeo.com
Above: Upstream side of Ekati Long lake containment facility. A throughow
rock dike forms the tailings impoundment
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DAM ENGINEERING
Major advance for minimum
energy loss culverts
A signifcant advance in culvert design was the development of the minimum energy
loss culvert in Australia 50 years ago. Hubert Chanson illustrates how it proves to be a
testament to hydraulic engineering expertise
C
ULVERTS are among the most common hydraulic
structures and were used for more than 2000 years. For
example the Romans built a number of culverts to pro-
tect road embankments as well some aqueducts. A cul-
vert is simply a covered channel designed to allow waters beneath
an embankment and to carry safely the food waters underneath
the earthfll structure. Modern designs differ very little from the
Roman culverts and they are too often associated with a signifcant
affux at design fows (The affux is the rise in upstream water level
caused by the presence of a hydraulic structure.)
During the late 1950s, a new culvert design was developed in
Australia the minimum energy loss (MEL) culvert (McKay 1971,
Apelt 1983, Chanson 2007). The MEL culvert design aimed to
achieve a minimum affux by streamlining the entire waterway and
operating at critical fow conditions for the design discharge.
In this paper, the performances of MEL culverts are reviewed and
discussed. Their successful operation over several decades demon-
strates a sound design and their experience highlights the hydraulic
expertise of the designers.
DEVELOPMENT
The design of the minimum energy loss culvert was developed by late
Professor Gordon McKay (McKay 1971). The design is based upon
the concept of minimum head loss and nearly constant total head
along the waterway. The fow in the approach channel is contracted
through a streamlined inlet into the barrel where the channel width
is minimal, and then is expanded in a streamlined outlet before being
fnally released into the downstream natural channel. The inlet and
outlet must be streamlined to avoid signifcant form losses.
The MEL culvert design implies a waterway operation at critical
or trans-critical fow conditions from the inlet lip to the outlet lip for
the design fow rate. Indeed, the critical fow conditions in an open
channel provide the largest discharge per unit width for a given
specifc energy (Henderson 1966, Chanson 2004). In practice, the
barrel invert is lowered as sketched in Figure 1 to increase locally the
specifc energy, hence the discharge capacity.
The basic design parameters of a MEL culvert are the design fow
rate Q
des
, the upstream specifc energy E
o
in the food plain in absence
of culvert, and the maximum acceptable affux. For a MEL culvert
design with zero affux, the width of the inlet lip must satisfy the
Bernoulli principle:
Zero affux (1)
where B
max
is the inlet lip width measured perpendicular to the fow
streamlines and the upstream specifc energy in absence of affux equals:
(2)
In the inlet and outlet, there is an unique relationship between the
width B and the excavation depth z (Apelt 1983, Chanson 2004).
In the throat, the barrel width must satisfy:
Zero affux (3)
where z
o
is the barrel excavation depth.
The inlet and outlet are designed using a fow net analysis based upon
the irrotational fow theory (Vallentine 1969, Chanson 2009). Figure
2 illustrates a culvert inlet. The contour lines, or lines of constant
invert elevation, are the equi-potential lines that must be perpendic-
ular to the fow streamlines everywhere. The design theory is well
understood for man-made structures with rectangular cross-sections
(Apelt 1983).
Practically, the MEL culvert design is selected only if it is cheaper
than a standard culvert design. The cost of the entire structure is
connected with its design specifcations including the design fow,
upstream design head and maximum affux, the topography and
construction costs, and the total costs. In Australia, the experience
indicates that the MEL culvert design compares favourably for long
culvert barrels and in fat food plains with limited available affux,
despite the higher design costs.
Inlet
fan
Outlet
fan
Barrel
Barrel Inlet Outlet
Inlet
lip
Outlet
lip
B
min
B
max
T.H.L. (Nature's flood plain)
Water level (Nature's flood plain)
Natural bed level
d
c
d
c
d
c
do
do
V
o
do
zo
Nature's flow depth
at design flood
with velocity Vo
Barrel Water surface assumed
in simple method
Free-surface in
real applications
Lip
Lip
Figure 1: Denition sketch of a minimum energy loss culvert operating at
design ow with zero afux
DAM ENGINEERING
PERFORMANCES AND EXPERIENCES
The frst MEL culvert designs were developed for zero affux, and
some solid physical modelling was conducted. The culvert models
were typically some 1:12 to 1:36 undistorted geometric scale models
with fxed bed. These early structures have been in operation for more
than 50 years with a range of hydrological conditions including semi-
tropical, tropical and arid weather conditions. The characteristics and
operational record of a number of MEL structures were document-
ed, and this was complemented by some feld inspections including
during food events (Apelt 1983, Chanson 2007).
A number of MEL structures were observed to operate at
design fows and for foods larger than design. The inspections by
hydraulic experts during and after the food events highlighted
the sound operation together with the negligible maintenance
requirements. Figures 3A and 3B show a MEL culvert and a MEL
waterway operating with discharges less than the design fow rate
(a waterway is a culvert structure without sofft and cover.) Both
structures are located in a catchment in the city of Brisbane in
Australia. Their design fow conditions correspond to an intense
rainstorm with a concentration time of two hours yielding a
runoff discharge of between 150-220m
3
/sec. Along the stream
(Norman Creek), a total of fve MEL structures were designed
and built to operate with zero affux. These structures were part
of the re-development of Norman Creek to allow the completion
of the southeast freeway.
Figure 3a shows the occurrence of a small hydraulic jump in
the inlet: the feature is common to MEL culverts operating with
discharges less than the design fow rate since the throat fow is
subcritical and the inlet fow is supercritical. At design discharge,
the fow is critical from the inlet lip to the outlet lip including in
the barrel, and no hydraulic jump takes place as sketched in Figure
1. Figure 3b highlights the throat and outlet operation that is typi-
cally subcritical and relatively smooth for discharges less than the
design fow rate.
Based upon decades of experience, Professor C.J. Apelt stressed that a
successful MEL culvert design must follow closely two basic concepts:
The streamlining of the discharge in, through and out of the culvert.
The trans-critical fow conditions throughout the entire waterway
for the design fow rate (Apelt 1983).
Any flow separation and recirculation must be avoided at all
cost. In one MEL culvert, some fow separation was observed in
the inlet associated with some fow recirculation in the barrel:
this structure cannot pass more than 50% of its design fow rate
without overtopping. In a MEL structure, the supercritical fow
conditions must be avoided at design fow rate: this is essential in
the outlet where separation must be avoided at any cost. Further
model and prototype observations have shown conclusively that
MEL culverts can pass safely food fows signifcantly larger than
the design fow conditions. This is not always the case with stand-
ard culverts.
In practice, the MEL culverts must be equipped with adequate
drainage to prevent water ponding in the barrel invert. Drainage
channels are preferred to drainage pipes. For example, the MEL
structure shown in Figure 2 is equipped with a well-designed
drainage system seen at the bottom left of the photograph. A
worrisome issue is the loss of expertise in hydraulic design. In
Brisbane, the operation of two MEL culverts was hampered
recently by the construction of concrete piers for a new busway.
As a result, a major arterial road is likely to be overtopped during
a design food because the infow streamlining is disturbed by the
concrete piers.
A key feature of the MEL culvert design is the small affux.
While many structures were designed with zero affux, the opti-
mum design could yield a small, non-zero affux (Chanson 2004).
The culvert wing-walls and foor must be adequately protected
since the velocities in the culvert are larger than in a conventional
culvert. Yet the MEL culvert streamlining yields lower turbulence
and a reduced erosion potential: eg some MEL culvert inverts can
be made of earth with grassed surface.
Major advance for minimum
Figure 2: Inlet of a MEL culvert looking upstream with students measuring the
inlet dimensions on 13/9/2006. Note the low ow channel in the foreground (right)
DAM ENGINEERING
CULVERT DESIGN
The minimum energy loss culvert design was a major development
in culvert design. First developed in Australia, the design is based
upon the basic concepts of streamlining the fow and trans-critical
fow conditions at the design discharge. The resulting design allows
a drastic reduction in the affux and upstream fooding, associated
with a lower cost.
The successful operation of MEL structures for many years has
shown the soundness of the design and highlighted the importance
of streamlining throughout the whole structure. Experience has
demonstrated that the design must be based upon expert hydraulic
engineering and any subsequent modifcations of the structure must
be carefully analysed to minimise any form of adverse effect on the
food fow.
Hubert Chanson, Professor in Hydraulic Engineering,
School of Civil Engineering, The University of
Queensland, Brisbane Qld 4072, Australia, Email :
h.chanson@uq.edu.au
Figure 3a: Operation of the Minimum Energy Loss culverts and waterway on
Norman Creek. MEL culvert underneath the southeast freeway in operation
on 20 May 2009. Looking downstream at the inlet (foreground), with a small
hydraulic jump typical of a discharge less than the design discharge
Figure 3b: MEL waterway beneath the southeast freeway in operation on 20
May 2009. View from the right bank looking downstream at the throat and
outlet (in background) This structure is located downstream of the MEL
culvert shown in Figure 3a
References
Apelt, C.J. (1983). Hydraulics of Minimum Energy Culverts and Bridge
Waterways. Australian Civil Engrg Trans., I.E.Aust., Vol. CE25, No. 2, pp. 89-95.
Chanson, H. (2004). The Hydraulics of Open Channel Flows : An
Introduction. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK, 2nd edition, 630 pages.
Chanson, H. (2007). Hydraulic Performances of Minimum Energy
Loss Culverts in Australia. Journal of Performances of Constructed
Facilities, ASCE, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 264-272 (doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0887-
3828(2007)21:4(264)).
Chanson, H. (2009). Applied Hydrodynamics: An Introduction to Ideal
and Real Fluid Flows. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Leiden, The
Netherlands, 478 pages.
Henderson, F.M. (1966). Open Channel Flow. MacMillan Company, New
York, USA.
McKay, G.R. (1971). Design of Minimum Energy Culverts. Research
Report, Dept of Civil Eng., Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 29 pages
& 7 plates.
Vallentine, H.R. (1969). Applied Hydrodynamics. Butterworths, London,
UK, SI edition.
IWP& DC
Audio-visual and Internet resources on Minimum Energy Loss
culverts and waterways
DESCRIPTION
(1)
REFERENCE
(2)
Audio-visual resources
The Minimum Energy Loss Culvert Apelt, C.J. (1994). The Minimum Energy Loss Culvert. Videocassette VHS
colour, Dept. of Civil Eng., University of Queensland, Australia, 18 minutes.
Norman Creek Flood on 7 November 2004 Chanson, H. (2004c). Storm and food at Norman Creek, Brisbane (Australia)
on 7 November 2004. IAHR Media Library {http://www.iahrmedialibrary.net/},
Urban drainage, video-clip, 6 minutes.
Internet resources
Hydraulics of Minimum Energy Loss (MEL) Culverts and Bridge Waterways {http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans/mel_culv.html}
Design of waterways and culvert structures on Norman Creek, Queensland {http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans/civ4511.html#Project}
www.riko-ght.com
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DAM ENGINEERING
Engineering on-the-go
New technology can open the door for new
business opportunities. The Engineering On-The-
Go concept developed by Eurocom utilises its
capable mobile hardware and optimizes the engineering
process in a wide variety of industries. It can even shorten the
design and development processes involved in dam projects
V
ARIOUS engineers come together to work on the different
aspects of designing, building and operating a dam and its
associated components. The team works together and utilises
CAD/CAM software, calculates the water fow in CFD soft-
ware, and runs analysis on the forces that play parts of the dam under
various situations. All these activities are completed with the use of
intense software programs that require high-end hardware to run them.
These activities are executed by different professionals from around
the world. The inability of laptops to run these intense software pro-
grams, and store and process such large amounts of data, can force
the engineering team to work on desktop workstations in their offce.
Capable mobile computing solutions would allow engineers to per-
form such activities in the feld anywhere in the world.
Performing these engineering activities on-site is possible through
Eurocoms capable mobile hardware, says the company. Called
Engineering On-The-Go it allows companies to: design or address
problems anywhere in the world; offer engineering capacity onsite;
receive feedback and make adjustments while being face to face with
fnal users, customers, co-developers and other third parties; and
reduce time and development costs for projects.
ENGINEERING HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
To run the intense engineering software programs (for CAD, CAM,
CFD, FEA, etc) four components are of the essence for your hardware:
memory (RAM), storage, a graphics processing unit (GPU) and the
central processing unit (CPU). RAM is necessary to make sure these
programs can access the data it needs in a fast way to make them run
smoothly. Most analytical programs load all your data and the pro-
gram itself into RAM to perform its calculations. Besides improving
the speed of the program, large amounts of RAM also allows you to
run multiple operating systems on one unit (virtualisation).
The advantage of virtualisation is that you can run your applica-
tions in the operating system they perform best without having to buy
multiple systems. When buying hardware for engineering software,
besides the size of the drives, the speed is another important factor.
You can choose between a mechanical drive, solid state drive and
hybrid. To improve performance or redundancy of the drives one can
choose to confgure them in different confgurations.
Another important aspect of hardware when using it for intense
engineering activities is the GPU technology. This component is a
specialised microprocessor that offoads and accelerates 3D or 2D
graphics rendering from the CPU. For this you want a GPU that is
dedicated to running OpenGL technology.
The last feature of your hardware that has a major impact on the
performance of your engineering software is the CPU. The number of
cores per CPU, the clock speed and the amount of cache are impor-
tant indicators for the performance of this component.
KEY SPECIFICATIONS
To deploy the Engineering On-The-Go concept, you need capable
mobile computing hardware. Some key specifcations of the mobile
workstation includes: up to 24GB of RAM; a six core Intel i7 980X
Extreme processor or a CPU from the XEON 5500/5600 series with
up to 12MB of cache and clocks speeds up to 3.33 GHz; up to 3.25TB
of storage provided by four physical hard drives; very portable and
weighing only 5.3kg including battery; units with up to 18.4-inch
full HD displays.
Because no company is the same, Eurocom has defned three levels
of Engineering On-The-Go implementations.
Engineering On-The-Go consultant
This can be applied by any size of company and only requires a relative-
ly small investment in the acquisition of a mobile workstation for the
engineer. This piece of equipment allows the user to perform on-the-go
consulting activities or test his draft design with customers, co-develop-
ers, fnal users and other third parties in the feld. The direct interaction
can reduce the projects costs caused by miscommunications.
Engineering On-The-Go projects
The second level uses the concept that Eurocom has defned as RED-
Team. RED-Team stands for Rapid Engineering Deployment and
allows companies to deploy a complete team of developers, engineers
and designers anywhere in the world. Next to an individual mobile
workstation for each of the RED-Team members, the team is also
equipped with a Eurocom mobile server to contain the master fle
set, back up the data and provide a network for the team members.
In this form the company can decide whether or not they deploy a
RED-Team at the customer site.
Engineering On-The-Go organisation
With the ultimate form of Engineering On-The-Go, the organisation
transforms into a RED-Team enterprise and integrates this concept
into their competitive strategy. Every project can be completed on
location which makes a head offce unnecessary.
Many innovative companies such as Apple, Siemens, Lockheed
Martin, Microsoft and Ericsson are currently using Eurocom Mobile
Workstations to perform their engineering activities on location and
have yielded the benefts of combining mobility and capacity.
Eurocom mobile workstations are also being utilised by engineers
around the world to design, construct and service state-of-the-art power
generation facilities. The power of the mobile work station allows engi-
neers to have a fully mobile capability, enhancing productivity and
reducing costs, by enabling them to perform their duties on site.
Eurocom mobile workstations are designed for heavy-duty com-
puting so they are built like heavy-duty trucks portable yet extremely
powerful with maximum upgradeability, expandability, and reliability,
says Mark Bialic, president of Eurocom. It is designed for maximum
performance and for the most demanding users. CAD/CAM designers
and engineers who frequently travel, yet need access to powerful com-
puting, are the core target for mobile workstations.
For more details see www.eurocom.com
The Panther
2 mobile
workstation.
IWP& DC
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DAM ENGINEERING
Inuencing engineering
To celebrate the importance of the dam engineering sector, weve compiled a list of the 20
people we believe have made the biggest difference to the sector over the last 10 years. This
list in alphabetical order was compiled using nominations from contacts and readers
around the world, and was decided by the IWP&DC editorial team and industry experts
Dr George Annandale
Dr Annandale was the frst engineer to develop and publish a sci-
entifcally defensible and validated approach to predicting scour of
rock. He published a seminal paper in 1995 that forms the basis of
the Erodibility Index Method and the understanding of rock scour
that developed since then. Over the last 10 years this method has
matured through testing, case study validation and refnement,
and has been internationally accepted by the engineering profes-
sion for use in the design of new dams and for developing mitiga-
tion designs ensuring the safety of existing dams. Dr Annandale
authored the book Scour Technology that was published by
McGraw-Hill in 2006.
Dr. Anil Chopra
Dr Chopra is well known for pioneering methods for earthquake
response analysis of structural systems, including dynamic interaction
with soils and fuids. He serves as a consultant on earthquake engineer-
ing problems to numerous governmental and private organizations.
A professor at the University of California at Berkeley, he has
been instrumental in encouraging students to study a number of
very tough issues associated with concrete dams (gravity and arch)
since the 1980s.
He has authored more than 300 papers on this work, a mono-
graph, Earthquake Dynamics of Structures, A Primer, 2005, and
a textbook, Dynamics of Structures: Theory and Applications to
Earthquake Engineering, 1995, 2001, and 2007.
Mr Don Deere
Mr Deere has over 30 years of experience in the design and construc-
tion of dams and reservoirs. He has worked on over 50 dam and
reservoir projects in his career. His expertise includes earth, concrete,
and rockfll dams and their foundations, and he has played a key role
in the development of modern techniques in engineering geological
investigations for dam foundations. He has extensive experience in
slope stability of both natural and excavated rock and soil slopes.
Typical slope stability projects range from design of excavated slopes
for civil and mining projects to investigations and repair design of
recent landslides.
John Dunnicliff
A consulting engineer, Mr Dunnicliff specialises in geotechnical
instrumentation. He has taught more than 100 CPD courses on
geotechnical instrumentation worldwide, and is author of the book
Geotechnical Instrumentation for Monitoring Field Performance.
Since 1984 he has been the editor of the North American maga-
zine Geotechnical Instrumentation News (GIN), soliciting and
editing articles and writing a column for each issue. In 2010 he
was awarded Distinguished Membership of the American Society
of Civil Engineers.
Mr. Joe Ehasz
Mr Ehasz has over 45 years of experience in civil engineering, design
and construction of dams, hydroelectric facilities, tunnels, and power
plants. His major feld of interest is in civil and geotechnical related
aspects of water resources projects; in particular, the soil and rock
mechanics design, analysis and construction of earthworks and
foundations for dams, embankments, and major civil works. He has
achieved many extraordinary accomplishments in leadership roles of
design engineer, chief engineer, construction manager and geotechni-
cal engineer in worldwide water and power projects, notably Design
Director, Senior Technical Review and Project Consulting Panel
Member for the 200m, 395MW San Roque Multipurpose Project in
the Philippines; and Project Construction Manager for the $800M,
32Oft high RCC Olivenhain Dam Emergency Water Storage Project
in California, US.
Mr. Paulo Cezar Ferreira Erbisti
Mr Erbisti is the author of the important textbook, Design of
Hydraulic Gates. Based on the authors extensive expertise and
experience as an engineer of hydromechanical projects, this book
describes the principal aspects of the design, manufacture, instal-
lation and operation of hydraulic gates. This Brazilian engineer
has contributed greatly to hydropower/dam engineering in the last
35 years in Brazil, Venezuela and in several other countries of the
world due to his extensive consulting work. He has worked on
a number of important project including Itaipu, Guri, Caruachi
and Tocoma.
Prof. Dr.h.c. Michele Fanelli
Michele Fanelli has been active in the feld of dam analysis and
design for more than 50 years. He was among the frst to advo-
cate and promote the study, development and practical applica-
tion of Finite Element numerical methods in Civil Engineering,
with particular emphasis on concrete dam engineering. He has
been involved in the design of several arch dams, including the
135m high Tsankov Kamak arch dam in Bulgaria. Now a private
consultant he continues to inspire dam engineers with his experi-
ence and expertise.
Brian Forbes
Australia-based GHDs Manager for major dam projects, Mr
Forbes has over 40 years of international experience in the inves-
tigation, spillway modelling, design, documentation and construc-
tion of all types of dams, with an international reputation for his
expertise in RCC dams, having been closely involved in over 40
projects in 19 countries.
He is considered instrumental in the introduction of roller com-
pacted concrete (RCC) for use in dams in Australia.
Desmond Hartford
During his 30-year career in Canada, where he worked with BC
Hydro and Klohn Crippen Consultants, and in Ireland, Mr Hartford
has been developing the knowledge base and promoting new and
modern approaches to the assessment and management of dam
safety. He was one of the frst in the dam engineering community
to recognize that the risk-informed and systems-based approach can
signifcantly improve the decision-making process in dam safety. He
is currently a leading authority on probabilistic risk assessment and
management for dams.
He is the principal author of the textbook Risk and Uncertainty
DAM ENGINEERING
in Dam Safety and also a principal author of the International
Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) Bulletin on Risk Assessment in
Dam Safety Management. He is also the author of numerous papers
on the subject of probabilistic risk assessment for dams and broad
issues of geotechnical engineering and soil mechanics.
Prof. Alfred Skip Hendron
Prof Hendron works as consultant full-time on the design and
construction of dams around the world with active projects in
Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America and throughout North
America. Most notably he is the primary consultant to the United
States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) which has
regulatory authority over all non-federally owned hydroelectric
dams in the US. In this role, he has direct and demanding infuence
over the design and construction of new dams and the remediation
and re-build of existing dams that are under FERC jurisdiction.
In recent years, this has included the Saluda Dam Remediation
Project and the Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir Re-build and the
Silver Lake Rebuild.
David E Kleiner
Kleiner was the head of the geotechnical group in Harza
Engineering in Chicago. In his position, he directed the design
of many world class earth and rockfll dams, including Yacyreta
in Argentina; Guri and La Honda in Venezuela; San Roque in the
Philippines; Cerron Grande and 15 de Septiembre in El Salvador;
Bath County, Kinzua and Rocky Mountain in the US; THP in
China; Mohale in Lesotho, and many others. He has also par-
ticipated in many other dam projects reviewing and defning the
foundation for the dam (Olivenhain and Mossyrock in the US
for example), or as member of review boards or panel of experts
(Toulnustouc in Canada, and others). He has also been a long
time participant in USSD and ICOLD, presenting papers during
ICOLD congresses, and participating in the technical committees,
specifcally the Materials for Embankment Dams Committee.
Dr. Harald Kreuzer
A swiss consulting engineer, Dr Kreuzer has participated in a number
of international events and has also served on a number of panels
worldwide, particularly concerning dam safety issues. His vast experi-
ence and knowledge has made a great contribution in addressing dam
safety issues in a number of countries, including Sri Lanka.
Dr. Giovanni Lombardi
Dr Lombardi is a specialist in civil works and tunnel construction.
A Swiss engineer, he has contributed signifcantly to new theoretical
developments in the feld of civil engineering hydraulic structures,
particularly arch dam design. A past president of the International
Commission on Large Dams, he has infuenced the construction of
numerous structures throughout his engineering life.
Prof. Vahid Lotf
Prof Lotf has 24 years academic experience and 22 years profes-
sional experience in analysis of concrete dams. He was lead analyser
and designer of seven large concrete dams and technical advisor for
several concrete dams in Iran. His knowledge and abilities on fnite
element, concrete dams, and fuid-structure interaction courses have
inspired many Iranian students to pursue their future studies or career
in dam engineering. He has been lecturer and/or supervisor of many
of the best dam analysers in Iran. He has published more than 43
journal and 42 conference papers.
Bayardo Materon
Mr Materon is the actual President of the CFRD International
Society. He has participated in the design and construction of the
worlds highest CFRDs, and has been involved with many leading
engineering organisations on design and construction of rockfll dams
and hydro projects. He has been involved in numerous conferences
and is author of hundreds of papers that have infuenced dam engi-
neers worldwide.
Dr. Paul C Rizzo
Dr Paul C. Rizzo has made a tremendous impact in dam engineer-
ing through his involvement with the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC), his dedication to numerous panels and
committees, and his commitment to dam safety. He is an inter-
nationally recognized expert in geotechnical, civil, and seismic
engineering. He has more than 44 years of experience related
to a wide range of projects including dams, waterfront facili-
ties, pumped storage facilities, and power plant structures. As
founder of Paul C. Rizzo Associates, Inc., Dr. Rizzo has built
the frm into one of the leading consultants in dam safety. In
April 2010, the frm completed the Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir
Rebuild Project, for which it served as the Engineer of Record
and Construction Manager.
Prof Dr Anton J Schleiss
Currently Director of the Civil Engineering Department of the
Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL), Prof Schleiss
has extensive experience in hydraulic engineering and underground
waterways. He is involved as international expert in several dam
and hydropower plant projects all over the world as well as food
protection projects mainly in Switzerland.
Glenn Tarbox
Glenn Tarbox has 49 years of experience as a civil/structural
engineer in all facets of water resource project development and
management. Currently Vice President, Dams Practice Leader for
MWH, he is an internationally recognized leader and expert in the
design and construction of dams, with specialized expertise in con-
crete dams. Tarbox has served as Design Engineer, Project Manager
or Principal-In-Charge on more than 26 major projects in the US
and throughout the world. He continues to be involved in RCC
dams as Project Manager of the design review of Baise RCC Dam
in China and Olivenhain RCC Dam. He was awarded the ASCE
Opal Civil Engineering Award of Merit in 2005 and Milestone RCC
Project 1987 to 2007 at the 5Th International Symposium on RCC
Dams, Chairman ITR Committee for the USACE, and is currently
lead designer for the 117-foot-high raising of San Vicente Dam
in San Diego, California, using RCC technology. In his manage-
ment role, he has infuenced and mentored young engineers in the
development of sound engineering practices and contributed to the
development of dam engineering and dam safety practices.
Dr. Alexander Tseng
Dr Tseng has a long, distinguished, multi-national career as an engi-
neer, entrepreneur, educator and problem-solver that spans 60 years.
He is founder and president of ORENCO (Oriental Engineering and
Supply Company), a subsidiary of Tseng Enterprises in Palo Alto,
California. Dr Tseng was the driving force behind the design and
development of the self adjusting food control gates that have
recently been deployed on over 200 major hydro projects in China.
These gates are rapidly becoming the standard means in China to
both raise the level of existing dams and create impoundment facili-
ties on rivers at low cost.
Dr. Martin Wieland
Dr Wieland has more than 38 years of experience in the analysis and
design of complex civil engineering projects, and is a leading expert in
the felds of earthquake engineering and structural dynamics. He is the
author of over 200 technical papers, and is a member of various interna-
tional professional organizations, Chairman of the ICOLD Committee
on Seismic Aspects of Dam Design, and Chairman of the earthquake
committee of the Swiss Committee on Dams. One of his key qualities
is his interest in gathering existing experiences and knowledge and dis-
seminating this knowledge to other dam engineers.
To comment on this feature, or send suggestions
for future listings, please email: carrieannstocks@
globaltrademedia.com
IWP& DC
TUNNELLING
A
MONG the many tunnelling works being completed
or getting underway in Latin America and Asia there
are a selection of hydro projects that present a range of
challenges through combinations of scale, layout and, of
course, ground conditions.
In Chile, the La Confuencia project is the upstream of a two-plant
cascade scheme and its headrace system involves two long, divergent
branch tunnels, each with multiple inlets, and the spread of bores have
been excavated by drill and blast. Other projects in the country such
as Angostura and Chacayes also have interesting tunnelling works.
Elsewhere in Latin America in Peru and Panama are further
hydro tunnel challenges. In Peru, preparations are underway for Cheves
project which calls for a wide variety of tunnel and cavern excavations.
Then, in Panama, the Pando-Monte Lirio and El Alto projects, at the
upper part of a small hydro cascade, require consecutive headrace tun-
nels that are not insignifcant in themselves and also present a challenge
to tunnelling in the uncommon barrier of volcanic lahar rock.
On the other side of the world, where the variable and often dif-
fcult ground conditions of the Himalayas are not unknown to hydro
schemes, boring is to begin soon with a TBM on the major head-
race tunnel for the Kishanganga project in India. The more standard
approach to excavation in the region may be drill and blast but the
technology available and skill of the international contractor has per-
suaded that the TBM approach is the best way ahead.
Staying in India, another project in development is Luhri where
drill and blast is the order of the day, not least due to tunnelling
risk factors. But, unusually, studies have determined that the best
approach for its headrace is to excavate twin tunnels.
CHILE, PERU
La Confuencia Chile
Located about 150km south of Chilean capital Santiago, the 155MW
La Confuencia project has been developed by a joint venture of
Australias Pacifc Hydro and Norwegian frm SN Power in upper
reaches of the Tinguiririca river basin, in the San Fernando area. The
special purpose company created to build and operate the project is
Tinguiririca Energia.
The higher region of the basin includes the upstream section of the
Tinguiririca River and also the tributary of the Portillo/Azufre rivers.
The rivers are being tapped by two headrace tunnels arranged in a
wide Y-shaped layout, and their lengths are 9.05km and 11.3km,
respectively.
Each headrace tunnel has many collector adits that tap smaller
rivers and streams. From where they join the fows are conveyed
down the relatively short distance to the surface power station, which
was inaugurated at the end of October 2010. Commercial operations
are to begin in stages, starting in January 2011.
From La Confluencia, the discharged flows pass downstream
through a 17.7km long transfer tunnel to the La Higuera power
plant, also on the Tinguiririca River, and developed by the same JV
partners. La Higuera was brought into service earlier in 2010.
Construction work on La Confuencia was undertaken on a turn-
key basis by a JV of Germanys Hochtief Construction and Chilean
group Tecsa.
Separately, SN Power is developing and Hochtief is to work on the
Cheves hydro project and tunnels, in Peru (detailed later).
Tunnelling work on La Confuencia commenced in April 2008,
after main construction had commenced the previous October,
and the original programme was for the underground works to be
completed by May 2010 for the scheme to be fnished by July 2010.
While construction challenges have set back the programme by some
months the works are almost complete.
Geology in the area comprises andesitic tuff and breccias with
hematitic and arcillic alterations, and unconfined compressive
strength (UCS) ranges over 80MPa-120MPa. The main rock classes
are III-V whereas class 1-II was also anticipated but was not encoun-
tered during excavation. There was groundwater encountered in the
excavations, most notably in the El Manzano area.
The tunnels are generally about 6m wide and almost 6m high, with
horseshoe-shaped cross sections on inclined parts and semi-circular
upper parts on horizontal parts. The Portillo branch tunnel has a
Hydro projects recently completed or
underway in Latin America and Asia
show tunnelling challenges in various
combinations of scale, layout and ground.
Report by Patrick Reynolds
Multiple
challenges
Inside the La Conuencia powerhouse
TUNNELLING
section area of almost 33m
2
while that of the shorter Tinguiririca
tube is slightly larger, at almost 37m
2
. The 95m high surge shaft has
a section of slightly more than 200m
2
.
Drill and blast excavation was undertaken with Sandvik rigs,
including DT720 and DT820 jumbos. Excavators included
Caterpillar 313, 416 and JCB, and spoil transport used Gia Industri
Haggloader 10HR-B backhoe loaders and also Terex equipment.
Support for both primary and secondary lining comprised shotcrete,
rock bolts, mesh and also steel frames, as required. The concreting
works followed.
Works progressed reasonably well but faced challenges due to
ground conditions, and there were also some diffculties with concrete
works in the surge shaft.
Consultants on La Confluencia include HT Consult, EDIC,
Geocontrol, Norconsult, MWH and Golder Associates. Feasibility
studies were performed over 2005-7, and the outline design and site
investigation immediately afterwards. Construction began soon after
with detailed design continuing into that stage of the schemes devel-
opment.
Angostura, Chacayes Chile
Other hydro tunnelling work that will be done in Chile in the near
future or underway includes excavations for the Angostura and
Chacayes projects.
The 316MW Angostura project is being developed far south of
Santiago, in the Bio-Bio region, by energy utility Colbun. Under con-
struction on the Bio Bio River, the project has a budget of US$657M
and Colbun expects the plant to be operational by early 2013.
In mid-2010, Colbun awarded a construction contract for the
civil works to a JV of Italian frm Impregilo with local company Fe
Grande. Tunnelling works on the scheme will include excavation of
diversion tunnels and a large underground powerhouse.
Separately, Fe Grande is working on the 111MW Chacayes hydro
project, in a JV with Astaldi to undertake an Engineer, Procurement
and Construction (EPC) contract. The project is being developed on the
Cachapoal River by Pacifc Hydro but with Astaldi, since the Italian
contractor became an equity partner in the early stages of the scheme.
Tunnelling work on the run-of-river scheme will include more than
6km of tunnels split into three sections, the main bores being a 2.6km
long headrace and the Cipreses transfer tunnel. The full project is to
be completed in 2011.
Cheves Peru
Cheves is being developed on the Huaura River some 130km from
the Peruvian capital, Lima, and the peak-load plant will draw on
fows in the Huaura-Checras catchments.
Hochtief is getting underway with construction on the 168MW
scheme for SN Power, which plans to see the plant operational in
2013. SN Power signed the agreement in 2009 to build the project.
Underground works to be excavated on the Cheves project, says
Hochtief, include a powerhouse cavern (60m long by 15.5m wide
by 32m high) and the adjacent transformer cavern (27.5m long by
11.2m wide by 14m high).
In addition, the tunnelling will involve excavation of a 2530m long
diversion tunnel, a 9882m long headrace with a 894m long adit; a
702m long surge tunnel, two 107m long steel-lined penstocks, and a
3250m long tailrace.
PANAMA
Located in western Panama, the Pando-Monte Lirio scheme and the
El Alto project, immediately downstream, are the frst small hydro
plants in the Chiquiri Viejo valley cascade. Signifcant tunnelling
works are planned for the run-of-river schemes
More than 16km of tunnel excavation is required to build the three
headraces for the projects, and all are to be bored by separate TBMs
supplied from a single company, Italian frm Seli, which will also
carry out the tunnelling work.
A rarely met rock type dominates the geology in the valley lahars.
This type of rock can be highly variable in properties, not least due to
the wide range of methods it can be formed.
Pando-Monte Lirio
The Pando-Monte Lirio plants are being developed on the mid-upper
region of Chiquiri Viejo river with the former the upstream project.
Pando is to have an installed capacity of 32MW and Monte Lirio will
have 52MW, and the developer is Electron Investment which won a
50-year generation concession.
A little over a third of the US$292M budget for the projects is
equity with debt fnancing coming from multilateral sources, such
as the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) for which
Hatch did the project assessment, and the International Finance
Corporation (IFC).
Pando is to have a 5161m long headrace, which is to be excavated
by a 3.72m diameter TBM of earth pressure balance (EPB) type. The
machine is to be launched in April 2011 two months after a slightly
larger (3.92m diameter) shield of the same type has been launched on
the 7878m long Monte Lirio headrace drive.
Lahars originate as powerful volcanic slurries with high bulk density
more than 1,400kg/m
3
and the matrix can include widely ranging
sizes of debris, from dust and ash to stones and boulders. Once solidi-
fed, lahars form into mixed rocks with highly varied properties.
The rock that will dominate the drives has been classifed into two
types matrix- and clast-supported, the latter having fewer fnes and
Above, from left to right: TBM for one of two small hydro headraces in Pando-
Monte Lirio scheme, Panama; Double shield TBM to be used for Himalayan
headrace drive at Kishanganga project, India
TUNNELLING
poorer grading. Groundwater permeability is relatively low but as
the tunnel alignments are below the water table the contractor has
elected to use EPBMs to deal with the soil-rock geology, especially
if water-bearing stratum or connate water are encountered.
EPBMs are specialist boring machines used to handle ground con-
ditions where variable characteristics and possibly water are present.
They hold back the excavation with a pressurised action, possibly
involving conditioning agents, while carefully remove the excavated
material in a continuous plug extraction using a sealed auger screw.
Often the EPB tunnelling technology is used in urban environments in
river or coastal areas for transport and utility projects. In lahar, though,
where the rock is dry and stable it will be able to operate in open
mode, only having to go to full sealed, or closed, mode should there
be quite wet conditions, an unstable face or loose ground.
El Alto
El Alto is to be built downstream of Monte Lirio, and is being built
by a different developer a JV of locals companies Hydro Caisan and
Panama Power Holdings. The 60MW (24.7MW frm) project is to be
commissioned in 2013.
Tunnelling works on the project include a 3240m long headrace
tunnel, surge tanks, a 96m high shaft and a 368m long penstock. The
headrace tunnel is to be bored using a 6.79m diameter EPB shield.
Seli is doing the underground works under an EPC contract, and is to
have the TBM manufactured by the beginning of January 2011.
While active on the substantial concentration of TBM work in the
lahars for small hydro in Panama, Seli is also preparing to undertake
a major tunnelling challenge also in the water power sector but on the
other side of the world for the Kishanganga project, in India. On that
project the geological challenge includes squeezing rock.
INDIA
Kishanganga
The 330MW Kishanganga project is being developed by NHPC Ltd (for-
merly National Hydroelectric Power Corporation) in Jammu & Kashmir
(J&K) province, and is due to be operational in 2016. NHPC took over
development of the planned project from the state government.
Key features of the project include a dam on the Kishanganga River,
which is a tributary of the Jhelum, and signifcant underground works
a diversion tunnel, headrace, penstock, surge shaft, powerhouse and
tailrace. The major tunnelling works will convey water southwards
from the Kishanganga catchment to a neighbouring basin that will
supply the plant being built near Bonar Nala River, which drains into
Wular lake, north west of Srinagar.
Civil works construction is being undertaken by Indian contrac-
tor Hindustan Construction Co (HCC) in a 98:2 JV with consultant
Halcrow. The underground works are to be completed by early 2014.
The headrace is approximately 24km long, and more than half is
to be excavated by TBM an uncommon choice for the Himalayas
where squeezing rock and fault zones have presented a number of
problems for the tunnelling method, such as at Dulhasti and Parbati
II hydro projects, in India, and costs are sometimes also a concern.
For such a major headrace tunnel at Kishanganga, therefore, the
choice of excavation system is a major strategic assessment and exer-
cise in risk management. That a TBM has been picked to excavate
more than 14.6km of the tunnel is, therefore, an interesting choice to
say the least. But given that the tunnelling subcontractor, Seli, is both
manufacturer and has crews with experience of diffcult conditions
including high overburden pressures and fssure zones it will be an
important point in TBM engineering in the Himalayas to learn how
the machine functions in the long headrace drive.
Geology along the alignment is mostly Panjal volcani basalt, andes-
ite and intrusive granite/granodiorite which may have some associa-
tion with hydro-geothermal activity at faults and discontinuities. In
addition, the ground conditions are expected to include siltstones and
sandstones affected by tectonics, and there could be shales and phyl-
ites. Cover on the headrace will typically range over 750m-1000m
but will reach up to 1400m.
A 6.18m double-shield TBM with 19 discs is being supplied with
advanced systems designed to help counter pressures and movements
due to high overburden, and include: high conicity for continuous
over-excavation by 100mm, which will help the shield to manoeu-
vre in squeezing ground; arrays of holes for probing ahead; and, not
having to stop excavation and risk being locked while at standstill
while undertaking ground conditioning ahead of the drive, and also
contact injection during lining operations.
In addition, extra cutterhead motors have been added during
design, taking the power to 2520kW (8 x 315kW), to give suffcient
torque should there be stoppages and restarts in diffcult ground con-
ditions. Further, a dozen auxiliary cylinders are ftted to advance the
rear shield in squeezing ground.
The tunnels will have a fnished diameter of 5.2m, and the lining
will comprise 350mm thick hexagonal concrete segments.
TBM and backup equipment is being moved to site by HCC, and
assembly is to commence in January 2011. However, if Kishanganga
is seen as a long tunnelling challenge then there is another, even longer,
and also in India for the Luhri project, in Himachal Pradesh
Luhri
Luhri project is being developed by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN),
which signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the
state government for the 775MW scheme in 2004. As the design
developed, the dam site was moved on the Satluj River, adding head
and power but also more than doubling the length of the initially
proposed headrace tunnel to 38.1km.
Studies were undertaken to assess the large-scale tunnelling options
for cost and programme risk during construction, and analyses exam-
ined the diameter as well as the number of tunnels. The work was
undertaken by consultant Mott MacDonald, and the investigation
looked at three key factors to establish the best solution minimising
head loss, operational needs of the scheme, and construction risk.
Focusing on construction risk included the regions often challeng-
ing geology, possible fexibility to modify the alignment for excava-
tion by different methods, if cover could be reduced and equipment
costs cheaper drill or blast or two, potentially four, TBMs.
Geology along the alignment includes gneiss, schist, quartzites, phyl-
lites, shale and limestone, and also the strata are folded and there is a
major thrust fault presenting potentially squeezing ground and blocky
stretches and the middle of the tunnel passes twice through this zone.
In the end, the prime options were for a 11.75m diameter single tunnel
or twin 9m diameter tubes, it being clear that double tunnels would pro-
vide much greater operational fexibility, especially over such lengths.
Other underground works on the Luhri project include
the powerhouse.
Himalayan region of Indias Luhri scheme, which will have a twin tube headrace
IWP& DC
therobbinscompany.com
saesrcLLirsLn.ccn
Vhn a tunnl pro|ct appars too challnging,
it's a |ob or Robbins. Th inoustry's most
proouctiv uipmnt, Robbins TPMs hav
complto mor rock tunnls than all th
comptition combino. That mans you
hav all th powr ano ingnuity you no
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Move mountains with Robbins.
TUNNELLING
O
NTARIO Power Generations Niagara tunnel project
includes the planning, design and construction of a
10.2km long, 12.7m internal diameter tunnel and associ-
ated facilities. This will divert an additional 500m
3
/sec of
water from the Niagara River upstream from the Horseshoe Falls to
the existing Sir Adam Beck generating stations near Queenston. The
design / build contractor, Strabag Inc, is using the worlds largest hard
rock tunnel boring machine (14.44m diameter) to excavate the tunnel
(supplied by Robbins). Niagara tunnel will deliver enough water to
increase average annual energy output from OPGs Sir Adam Beck
stations by 1.6BkWhr enough to supply 160,000 Ontario homes
with clean, renewable hydroelectric power.
Big Becky, the name given to the TBM, is now 9.1km along the
10.2km tunnel route from Sir Adam Beck generating station com-
plex toward the intake 2km upstream from the Horseshoe Falls at
the International Niagara Control Works. With vertical realignment
to minimise the remaining excavation in the overstressed Queenston
shale starting in January 2009 at 3.3km from the outlet portal, the
tunnel crown reached the much stronger Whirlpool sandstone in June
2009 at about 4.3km along the route. With minimal overbreak, the
TBM advance often exceeded 15m per day when the Whirlpool sand-
stone was in the tunnel crown.
Richard Everdell is the project director for Ontario Power Generations Niagara tunnel
project. He gives IWP&DC an update on how work is progressing
Nearing breakthrough at Niagara
Right: Installation of the polyolen membrane in the tunnel arch;
Below: Route of the Niagara tunnel below the City of Niagara Falls, Ontario
TUNNELLING
However, with a thickness of about 6m and the tunnel slope oppos-
ing the dipping rock, the tunnel crown passed through the Whirlpool
sandstone in about 1km. Overbreak increased and progress slowed
with the tunnel crown in the shaly lower portion of the Power Glen
formation. There has been practically no crown overbreak since late
April 2010 when the tunnel crown ascended into the sandstone por-
tion of the Power Glen formation at about 6.7km along the route.
Since that time, TBM mining has been progressing at an average rate
exceeding 13m per day. To date, the best daily TBM advance was
26.46m on 1 May 2010 and the best weekly advance was 153.23m
for the period ending 18 July 2010.
Initial tunnel support, comprised of steel ribs, wire mesh and rock-
bolts in the tunnel crown and a full circle layer of shotcrete, is applied
as the TBM advances. The impermeable polyolefn membrane and
600mm cast in place unreinforced concrete liner are installed with
separate invert and arch operations. Strabag workers have now
advanced the invert concrete (the lower one-third of the permanent
liner) by about 6.5km, while the arch concrete (upper two-thirds of
the permanent liner) has advanced about 1.1km. The arch mem-
brane is rolled out, fxed to the felt backing, heat welded to adjacent
panels and fully tested to ensure no leaks before the arch concrete is
placed.
Crown profle restoration, inflling overbreak areas of up to 5m
in the Queenston shale, is carried out between the invert and arch
concrete operations and has currently advanced about 3km. Profle
restoration involves consolidation grouting of the overlying rock,
installation of support dowels and sacrifcial steel forms and place-
ment of infll shotcrete or self-leveling concrete.
Contact grouting, between the membrane and concrete liner, is
scheduled to begin in mid 2011. Pre-stress grouting, installed through
the membrane to lock the liner into the surrounding rock and offset
internal water pressure during tunnel operation, is scheduled to begin
early in 2012.
At the intake structure, placement of primary concrete is nearing
completion. Primary concrete for the outlet structure is scheduled for
2011. Fabrication of the intake sectional gates and the outlet gate
and hoist are currently in progress and scheduled for delivery to site
beginning in 2011.
The TBM is now expected to breakthrough at the intake portal
ahead of the target schedule. In addition to the issues with crown
overbreak, the project team has recently overcome a few other chal-
lenges along the route. The September 2009 fall of ground and the
subsequent stabilisation of the area, delayed TBM mining for about
seven weeks. About 100m
3
of Queenston shale and initial shotcrete
lining fell unexpectedly from the tunnel crown about 3.6km along the
tunnel. All workers safely evacuated the tunnel without any injuries.
Remedial work for the fall of ground required build-up of a gravel
ramp in the lower half of the tunnel for access to the crown, followed
by scaling of loose material, installation of additional rockbolts up
to 6m in length, application of wire mesh reinforced shotcrete, and
consolidation grouting of the host rock.
On 27 April 2010, a diesel compressor caught fre about half way
along the tunnel and mining was delayed by a couple of hours. The fre
was promptly extinguished and did not damage the shotcrete lining,
however emergency procedures were implemented and all workers
were safely evacuated from the tunnel until the smoke was cleared.
Currently, Strabag crews are repairing a crack that developed at a
fange connecting two sections of the TBMs main beam about 10m
back from the cutterhead. Crews stopped mining on 3 December, and
an outage scheduled for later in December has been moved forward
to minimise schedule impacts associated with the TBM main beam
repair. TBM mining was expected to resume by year end.
The Niagara tunnel is scheduled for completion in 2013.
Richard A Everdell, Project Director Niagara Tunnel
Project, Ontario Power Generation Inc.
Email: rick.everdell@opg.com
Above: Fall of ground remedial work in September 2009; Left, top: Realigned
prole of the Niagara tunnel the TBM is now about 1km from the intake;
Left, bottom: Moving bridge structure over recently placed invert concrete
IWP& DC
Niagara River
Normal
WL.
171.0
SAB-Niagara GS
No. 1 canal
Intake structure
Queenston shale
Whirlpool sandstone
Existing tunnels
Normal WL.164.6
Outlet
structure
0 2km 1
200
150
100
50
0
(m)
Buried
St. Davids
Gorge
TUNNELLING
M
ORE than 25 years after its first tunnel, a veteran
Robbins TBM has embarked on its third project on
the Faroe Islands. The 3.35 main beam machine is the
frst and only TBM to ever operate in the Faroes, and
was purchased in 1984 by Streymoy, Eysturoy and Vagoy (SEV), the
utility company of the Faroes. Once its third project is complete, the
machine will have nearly 34km of hard rock tunnels under its belt.
The biggest challenge so far has been the disassembly, renovation
and reassembly of the old TBM and material due to the location on
an isolated island. Parts were sent all over the world for renovation,
then sent back to the Faroes for assembly onto the machine. Having
said that, we have tried to refurbish as much as possible here on the
Faroe Islands and have been very impressed by our local suppliers and
contractors, said contractor MT Hojgaard.
In October 2010, Danish and Faroese contractors MT Hojgaard
and J&K Petersen launched the seasoned machine for the newest
phase of the islands green energy initiative. The Eidi II hydropower
expansion project is located on the main island of Eysturoy, and
involves bored collector tunnels to transfer rainwater to the Eidi sta-
tion, generating an additional 16GWh/yr, for a total of 56GWh/yr
when fnished.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The Faroes, an archipelago in the North Atlantic located between
Iceland and Norway, consists of 17 inhabited islands and one unin-
habited island. The islands have a population of just over 49,000
people. Due to its location in the Gulf Stream, the climate is very
temperate and produces 250 days of precipitation throughout the
year, which fows down the many rivers and streams across the steep
mountainsides. These factors are optimal for hydropower, an indus-
try that started on the Faroes back in 1921.
The Eidi II tunnels are seen as a main part of SEVs green energy
initiative. Today approximately 8% of the energy supply in the Faroes
is based on renewable resources; the rest is based on fossil fuels. The
government has declared a new climate policy, calling for a 20% reduc-
tion in greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 compared with 2005. To
fulfll the policy, we need several green initiatives to be executed. In the
power sector, we have projects including turbines and the hydroelectric
station, says Leivur Hansen, public relations manager for SEV.
Annual production of electricity in the Faroes in 2009 was 276GWh,
with 96GWh from six hydropower plants. With the exception of the
Botni plant, all of the hydropower stations supply power to the same
electric power grid, which serves 11 islands. Thermal power is the main
source for electricity but wind energy using four wind mills on Eysturoy
is also showing promise for the green energy sector.
EIDI HYDROPOWER STATION
The Eidi project, which started back in 1984 and was operational by
1987, consists of a reservoir with a holding capacity of 16Mm
3
at
an altitude of 149m. The structures are connected to multiple TBM
collector tunnels totalling 24.7km in length and receiving rainwater
runoff from 87 intakes. The powerhouse runs on two Francis turbines
each 6.7MW, which allows the plant to produce 39.8GWh/yr.
During original construction, a Robbins Model 24RM blind raise
drill was used to bore a total of 150 collector shafts from the bored
tunnels, which ranged from 5-30m deep. The same Robbins blind
raise drill will also be used to bore multiple collector shafts from the
new Eidi II tunnels.
Eidi II, currently under construction, is scheduled to be commis-
sioned in 2013. This new phase extends the southwestern branch
by 9km of bored tunnel, as well as 2.4km of drill and blast tunnel
between the old and new TBM tunnels, all of which will feed from 32
new intakes. The existing hydro station will receive a new 8MW tur-
bine expected to increase production by an estimated 16.2GWh/yr.
VETERAN TBM
The Robbins main beam TBM was frst built in 1984 for the original
two tunnels of the Eidi project, measuring 4 km and 6.4 km in length.
The initial tunnels were completed in 1987 and during the 1990s an
additional three tunnels were bored measuring 3.2km, 1.2 km and
9.9 km respectively for a total of 24.7km of bored tunnels. The
machine was then stored in a closed workshop by the hydroelectric
station for ten years before it was recently brought back into commis-
sion for its latest mission.
The TBM was well-built by Robbins, and we have done a good
job maintaining it, said Anders Nedergaard-Hansen, head of the
power production department for SEV.
Due to sitting for ten years, the machine underwent some refur-
bishment to the gearboxes, main bearing, lube system and hydraulic
hoses. Prior to starting up this project, we contacted Robbins for an
assessment. We got an immediate response, and two men were sent
A veteran Robbins TBM has been brought
back into service on the Faroe Islands to aid
expansion of the Eidi hydropower station
Back in service for hydro expansion
Above: The 3.35m diameter Robbins TBM was launched in October 2010 to
bore its third tunnel in the Faroe Islands
TUNNELLING
to inspect the machine. They concluded it was in good condition fol-
lowing the upgrades, said Nedergaard-Hansen.
The 3.35m TBM has 5227 kN of thrust and 519,791 N-m of
torque, making it ideal for the islands hard basalt rock.
THIRD PROJECT LAUNCH
Prior to the start of tunnelling, crews mapped the surface area around
the site and conducted a thorough geological survey with probing
and examination of drilled core-samples. The geological conditions
surrounding the tunnel were determined to consist of 4.4km of basalt
and 4km of sill. Rock strengths for the basalt range from 69-177
MPa UCS. The TBM was assembled on a construction site near the
Nordskali-tunnel, an existing road tunnel. Robbins GmbH provided
technical support during the assembly, and is currently providing feld
service, additional support, training and spare parts throughout the
duration of the project.
Following assembly, the TBM began excavation of the collector
tunnel, which brings the machine 100m into the mountain and within
a few meters of the existing tunnel before drilling 8.4km away from
the Eidi hydroelectric station. This tunnel is the third extension of the
project, and when fnished will provide a total of 17.5km of collector
tunnel for the plant.
Excavation is being done fve and a half days a week with two
12hr shifts Monday through Friday, and one shift on Saturday. Each
shift employs six crew members plus supporting personnel outside the
tunnel. Though the machine has only been boring for three months,
tunnelling has advanced as far as 1.2km. As of December 2010, the
machine is excavating around 200m a week as boring begins to ramp
up. No ground support has been needed to date; however, rock bolts,
wire mesh and dry shotcrete will be used if more diffcult ground is
encountered.
Cutter wear is minimal, which is largely attributed to the rock
being suitable for excavation using a TBM. Excavated muck is either
being conveyed out of the tunnel and stored at a designated location
or being distributed for use at local projects (harbour expansions and
road works in the mountains). The tunnel is on a 3% grade, climbing
a total of 25m over the course of the project.
Technology has advanced signifcantly in the tunnelling world since
the machine was built more than 25 years ago. Overall, the veteran
machine is looking and performing well despite some minor chal-
lenges. The TBM steering is done manually by adjusting the TBM
to a laser beam, which is hung from the tunnel roof and directed in
a specifc direction using prisms also hung from the tunnel roof. The
crew is adapting the system for use around slight curves, which can
cause the laser beam to disappear if not adjusted correctly.
The tunnel for Eidi II will mark the fnal stage for this project;
however, projects throughout the island may use the TBM in the
future. The added kilometers will, no doubt, make the TBM one of
the worlds veteran tunnelling machines. Many such machines have
become lifetime investments, boring up to 50km or more.
Nedergaard-Hansen is up to the challenge: We are looking
forward to using the machine for additional projects totaling up to
20 km in the next fve to ten years.
Article by Brian Sethman. Email: sethmanb@robbinstbm.com
Above: A crew member checks on the excavation of the tunnel face during
launch of the Robbins Main Beam TBM in October 2010
IWP& DC
EQUIPMENT
T
HE Gurara Dam and hydroelectric power station is cur-
rently under construction in Nigeria, around 120km
northeast of the countrys capital city, Abuja.
The project encompasses the building of the new dam
and reservoir and a pipeline that will take water from the reservoir
to provide drinking water for the population in Abuja. The reservoir
also provides water for local irrigation projects, and the power plant
generates 37.5MW of power, providing electricity for the local popu-
lation. Both the irrigation and the power generation are contributing
signifcantly to the economic prosperity of the region and the quality
of life of the local population.
Alstom Hydro has supplied and installed the water turbines and
generators for the project and is equipping the power station. The
generators were built in the companys factory in Bilbao in Spain and
transported to the construction site.
At the start of the project in July 2008 the communications in this
remote part of Nigeria were almost non-existent. An old antenna was
available for mobile telephony but this provided a weak and sporadic
signal with very patchy coverage, meaning that project staff could
only make calls from certain locations.
Decisions often have to be made quickly on such complex projects,
and this requires the availability of key staff and managers and also
immediate access to business-critical information and documenta-
tion. The lack of a reliable communications infrastructure in such
major projects can lead to critical delays in project implementation.
Data communications are as important as voice telephony, since the
project management often depends on the fast and reliable delivery
of data, including reports, drawings, images and plans.
The success of such projects, often in remote locations, therefore
depends on the availability of high quality, effective and reliable
communications. Alstom Hydro considers the communications
infrastructure to be an essential element for its overseas power plant
construction and project business, placing great emphasis on the
importance of being universally available, with a reliable, uninter-
rupted and secure telecommunications infrastructure.
THE SOLUTION
Alstom decided to complement the existing telecommunications
infrastructure with a VSAT satellite connection to West Africa and
a communications link to the construction site in Nigeria. This com-
munications solution was designed, delivered and implemented by
atrexx Ltd. & Co. KG Remagen.
atrexx created a customized communications infrastructure to
provide the high quality of voice and data communications that was
important for the success of the project. The solution comprised a
2way2sat Ku-band satellite communications system providing an
IP-based infrastructure, combined with fon4all Voice over IP (VoIP)
for cost-effective telephony.
Advanced 2way2sat satellite technology provides high availability
in diffcult tropical conditions
One of the problems in tropical regions is that heavy rain can cause
a weakening of the signal for satellite communications users. In
Nigeria, for example, such situations cause problems for VSAT IP
A satellite-based telecommunications infrastructure from atrexx was used to deliver high
quality data communications and a reliable VoIP telephony service to the remote, rural site
of the Gurara Dam project in the West African rainforest
Satellite communications
Below, from left to right: View of the irrigation pumps at the Guara Dam
project; View of the dam; project powerhouse
EQUIPMENT
connections. Alstom, however, needed to be sure of a high availability
of its communications links even in the rain. C-band is more robust
in rainy periods because of its lower frequency transmission, but it
requires large antennae. Local site conditions and the problems of
transportation, however, meant that smaller antennae were needed.
These provide an adequate service in drier regions but generally lead
to restricted availability in tropical environments.
atrexx therefore implemented its 2way2sat Ku-band satellite com-
munications, based on the recently launched iDirect Evolution Series.
These services have adaptive coding and modulation (ACM) and pro-
vide stable Ku-band communications even in tropical regions.
The atrexx 2way2sat satellite communications infrastructure pro-
vides Alstom with a high performance satellite link via the Ku-band
satellite Telstar 11N. This allows the satellite signal to be sent directly
from the European Teleport to the construction site in Nigeria. The
site network and the local telephone switchboard are connected
directly using a satellite modem. Since the atrexx solution is a two-
way link, it is completely independent of the existing infrastructure
and the entire telecommunications process is IP-based.
fon4all VoIP via satellite link delivers increased effciency and
reduces costs
One of the most important benefts of the IP-based satellite solution
is that of VoIP telephony on the site. This provides greater functional-
ity and reduces telephone operating costs. The implementation of a
system of IP telephony over satellite eliminates the cost of installation,
operation and maintenance of a separate voice network. In fact, this
would not have been possible given the lack of local infrastructure
and GSM availability at the construction site.
atrexx implemented its fon4all VoIP solution via the satellite chan-
nel in order to meet Alstom Hydros requirement for reliable, effec-
tive telephone services. A fexible billing system means that staff can
make calls globally at local rates with full cost control. The integra-
tion of an international direct dialling system allowed atrexx to make
Swiss phone numbers available to staff in Nigeria. The Swiss offce is
therefore able to contact the construction site via the Swiss telephone
network, saving several hundred Euros per month.
Alstom Hydro now has a satellite IP connection (VSAT IP infra-
structure) for its essential data communications as well as an inde-
pendent telephony solution that brings signifcant advantages in
terms of availability and cost.
This is an extremely fexible system that can be fully centrally
managed and easily expanded to meet changing requirements, said
Jean-Claude Bisenius, CEO of atrexx.
According to attrexx, the customer benefts of this system included:
High availability of reliable, robust communications in a remote
and diffcult location.
Excellent reliability, even under tropical rainforest conditions.
Improved effciency through high speed data transmission high
performance data communications allow the rapid, easy transmis-
sion of data, including technical reports, drawings, images and
other documentation.
High quality voice communications the new VoIP system, inde-
pendent of the local network, allows better, more reliable voice
communications.
Lower set-up costs the use of IP telephony over satellite eliminates
the need for a separate network for voice communications.
Cost-effective communications the IP telephony solution allows
staff to make calls globally at local rates through the companys Swiss
offce network, signifcantly reducing the operating costs .
Expert knowledge atrexxs team understood the Alstom Hydro
business imperatives, the importance of the communications infra-
structure and the impact that its operations have.
Quality of service atrexx provided skilled and experienced person-
nel, including local engineers to implement the system.
[atrexx] have delivered an excellent solution and implemented the
whole project from the specifcation to the transportation of materials
and equipment to this remote location, plus the on-site implementa-
tion, said Thomas Lscher, Project Manager Site / HEPCHI, Alstom
Hydro. The atrexx local engineers have also been extremely sup-
portive and have always reacted immediately to deal with any issues
that arise.
The 2way2sat solution implemented by atrexx has provided
a very high performance communications environment for our
voice, data and video needs, with excellent quality, high availabil-
ity and good transmission speeds. We are able to send drawings,
images and documents easily and reliably, vastly improving the
effciency of our project management and the VoIP has greatly
reduced our costs.
For further information, please visit www.atrexx.com
IWP& DC
EQUIPMENT
I
N the past, residents of Fairfax County, Virginia had very
little warning about sudden water level changes of the high
hazard PL-566 dams located throughout the county. In June
2007, in conjunction with the Northern Virginia Regional
Hazard Mitigation Plan, the county developed a foodplain man-
agement plan. The overall goal was to protect life and property by
achieving and maintaining a high level of preparedness for extreme
rainfall events.
Offcials from the Stormwater Planning Division (SWPD) in the
Department of Public Works sought to establish an automated food
warning system for the New Alexandria, Belle View, and Huntington
areas and seven high-hazard dam sites. In March 2008, High Sierra
Electronics (HSE) was awarded a contract to supply, install and
maintain an ALERT food warning network.
ALERT is an acronym for Automated Local Evaluation in Real
Time, which is a method of using remote sensors in the field to
transmit environmental data to a central computer in real time. This
standard was developed by the National Weather Service and has
been used by the National Weather Service, US Geological Survey,
US Army Corps of Engineers, US Bureau of Land Management and
numerous state and local agencies. ALERT systems have become a
standard in real time environmental data collection because of their
accuracy, reliability and low cost.
Initially, a total of nine HSE packaged rain gauge stations equipped
with water level sensors and one repeater station (to extend the signal
range) were installed in July 2008. The systems remote gauges are
battery powered with a solar panel recharging system. Data is trans-
mitted by VHF radio using HSEs Model 3206 ALERT data transmit-
ter and interpreted as measurements at the countys base station.
The base station, which consists of radio receiving equipment and
a computer running DEC Data Systems DataWise software, collects
the coded signals and processes them into meaningful hydro-meteoro-
logical information. When alarm conditions are met, DataWise sends
notifcation to appropriate personnel via text message and e-mail.
In addition to regular timed reports, the rain gauges report each
millimeter of rainfall to the base station. The water level sensors report
any change in level based on a user selectable setting as small as one
tenth of a foot. The county has set alarm criteria in DataWise for rain-
fall levels, water levels, and the rate of water level rise at the sites.
When alarm conditions are met, the base station software sends
notification to emergency-response personnel. The system also
retrieves and archives data from nearby tidal gauges, US Geological
Survey stream gauges, and the Lake Barcroft discharge gauge, rain
and level sensors. The county uses the DataWise forecasting compo-
nent, which uses local precipitation estimates to generate predicted
hydrographs at desired locations.
Shortly after HSE completed installation, tropical storm Hanna
descended on the area in September 2008. The system was used
to monitor rainfall and food levels during the storm and provided
useful, accurate results. Real time data was recorded and alarms initi-
ated, as most of the sites reported rainfall over eight inches.
Hannah came through and dropped more than a 100-year rain-
fall in some areas, said Don Lacquement, engineer with SWPD.
This storm was the frst opportunity we had to see the High Sierra
Electronics equipment function during a signifcant event. Their
system, together with the data collection software, was a tremendous
asset in responding to this large storm.
The second phase of the project, initiated in 2010, involved HSE
installing instrumentation at the 11 remaining state-regulated dams
operated by the county. Installation was recently completed, which
included a combination of rain gauges and water level monitoring sta-
tions. Future plans include HSE adding automatic monitoring capa-
bility at 14 of the countys piezometers. Water level stations will be
installed in 2011, so real-time data can be transmitted to the base sta-
tion and incorporated into the foodplain management programme.
This data will assist in the development of long-term statistics for
water resource planning.
Sue Swenor, Marketing Manager, High Sierra Electronics,
155 Spring Hill Drive, Suite 106, Grass Valley, CA 95945, US.
www.highsierraelectronics.com
A new food warning network has been
installed at Fairfax County dams in the US
High alert from High Sierra
Below: High Sierra Electronics standpipe a radio transmitter is mounted inside;
Below, right: Fairfax county: The installation of such equipment can help
protect life and property by achieving and maintaining a high level of prepar-
edness for extreme rainfall events
IWP& DC
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ELGES large spherical plain bearings with Elgoglide
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Nature Creates the Rushing Waters
We Create the Bearings That Harness Them
939014_Staudamm_A4_US.indd 1 18.08.2010 10:41:26 Uhr
PROJECT UPDATE
C
ONSTRUCTION work is underway in Bhutan on the
124MW Dagachhu hydropower project, which will be
equipped with electrical and hydro-mechanical equip-
ment to be supplied by a joint venture of Alstom Hydro
and Andritz Hydro. The underground plant is due to be completed
and operational by early 2013.
The high-head project is located in the south west of Bhutan, in
Dagana province which is one of the remotest in the country, is heav-
ily forested and has wet summers and cool, dry winters. While the
region is remote and terrain diffcult, it is only a straight distance of
40km from the capital, Thimphu.
The project will use the waters of the Dagachhu River, which is a
tributary of the Punatsangchhu, which drains into the Brahmaputra
in eastern India. While being a run-of-river project, it will call for
signifcant civil engineering infrastructure, much of it underground
including the powerhouse, located almost 12km upstream of the
confuence of the Dagachhu and Punatsangchhu rivers. The intake is
nearly 9km farther up the Dagachhu valley.
Gross head is 304m and the maximum design discharge is
approximately 50m
3
/sec, and the plant is expected to generate
about 515GWh of electricity per year. Hydrological risk com-
bined with no water storage led the feasibility study and also due
diligence by a major lending bank the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) to apply a plant load factor of 52% to the project, which
is relatively low.
The project is being developed by Dagachhu Hydro Power Corp
(DHPC), a special purpose company which was founded by Druk
Green Power Corp (DGPC) the national owner and operator of all
large hydro plants in Bhutan. DGPC holds a 59% stake with the other
equity partners Tata Power of India (26%) and Bhutans National
Pension Provident Fund (15%). Tata also arranged the Power Purchase
Agreement (PPA) for the import of electricity to India.
Lot 1 civil engineering works are being undertaken by Hindustan
Construction Co (HCC). The project will require construction of new
and upgrade access roads as well as a 19.5km long, 220kV transmis-
sion connection to the existing grid.
Funding for the scheme, budgeted at Euro151M (US$198M), was
provided by Bhutan, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and also
Austria, via the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB).
DEVELOPMENT
Early studies on Dagachhu benefted from signifcant support from
Austria, and involved Bernard Ingenieure ZT GmbH from 2005, and
support from Poyry Energy. There was also support from the Austrian
Development Cooperation (OeZA) agency. Previous collaboration with
Austria led to development of the Basochhu Upper and Lower projects.
Over 2005-6 the project design document for Dagachhu, under
the UNFCCC assessment needed for CDM registration and carbon
credits, was completed. The feasibility study was also undertaken in
parallel in the latter part of that period. As the analyses were further
reviewed and developed, however, the relative importance of the rev-
enue share from carbon credits increased due to there having been,
it was viewed, over-optimistic views of electricity prices and a better
accounting for Bhutan getting a share of output for free.
The validation report by Det Norske Veritas Certification AS
(DNV), undertaken at the request of Poyry Energy, concluded that
Dagachhu meets all relevant UNFCCC requirements for CDM and
relevant cost party criteria, and correctly applies the required baseline
and monitoring methodology. Total emission reductions resulting
from the electricity generation of the hydropower project are approxi-
mately 0.5M tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year over the selected
7-year renewable crediting period.
HCC is undertaking the Lot 1 package of the project, which
includes: a diversion weir; intake; connection channel; desilter; fush-
ing channel; a headrace channel and a 7.7km long headrace tunnel;
surge shaft; pressure shaft; powerhouse and transformer caverns;
control building; and, tailrace tunnel. The contractors design con-
sultant is SNC-Lavalin.
Alstom Hydro and Andritz Hydro are working together in a joint
venture, led by Alstom Austrian Hydro Consortium Dagachhu to
supply the turbines, generators and associated hydraulic, mechani-
cal, electrical and control equipment for the Dagachhu project. The
consortium was awarded a Euro55M (US$72.2M) turnkey E& M
contract in mid-2009.
For almost Euro29.7M (US$39M), or 54% of the supply contract
Among the many hydropower schemes that
Bhutan is developing through bilateral
co-operation, it is constructing
another Dagachhu with the help
of Austria. Report by Patrick Reynolds
Developing Dagachhu
Above: The project is under construction on Daggachuu River in south west
Bhutan. Photo courtesy Alstom Hydro
PROJECT UPDATE
value, Alstom is supplying two 70 MVA generators, six transformers
and the balance of electrical plant, including automation and protec-
tion systems. The generators are being made in Switzerland, the trans-
formers and associated equipment in India, the control and remaining
electrical equipment as well as project management services are being
provided from Austria.
With a supply contract value of about Euro25.3M (US$33.2M),
Andritz is manufacturing and providing two 6-nozzle Pelton turbines
and all the hydraulic steelwork for the project.
The two generating units are to be operational by the end of the
frst quarter of 2013, and the warranty period is two years.
BHUTAN HYDRO
The Dagachhu power plant is one of a number of hydropower
schemes in various stages of development in Bhutan and much of its
output will be exported to India.
Bhutans hydropower potential is estimated to be about 30GW, of
which 80% is anticipated to be feasible for development. However,
progress towards developing the hydropower potential has had to
rely in a major way on external funding due to the lack of internal
resources and limited foreign direct investment.
Existing hydro projects in Bhutan include the Chhukha and
Kurichhu, developed with support of India, and the Basochhu Upper
and Basochhu Lower schemes with Austrian help. The Tata plant is
the largest built so far.
Cllukla a 336NW (4 x S4NW) lanr rlar vas commissioneu
over 1986-88, and is equipped with Pelton turbines. It is located in
the Wangchhu river basin.
Kuiicllu a 60NW (4 x 15NW) lanr virl annual geneiarion o
aLour 400GWl o elecriiciry rlougl vas Luilr in rle Diangmecllu
river basin less for straight hydro but more for socio-economic rea-
sons, and so had a relatively high cost per MW for developments in
the country. The plant is at the toe of a dam and is equipped with
Kaplan turbines. It was commissioned in 2001, and funded by a
combination of bilateral assistance and a soft loan from India.
Basocllu Uei is a 24NW lanr (2 x 12NW) anu Basocllu
Lovei is a 40NW aciliry (2 x 20NW) , Lorl in rle Punarsangcllu
iivei Lasin. 1ley veie commissioneu in 2001 anu 2004, iesec-
tively. Each is equipped with Pelton turbines.
1ara rle 1,020NW (6 x 10NW) scleme in rle Wangcllu iivei
basin was commissioned over 2005-6.
Bhutan has taken two approaches to developing its hydro resources
Lilareial agieemenrs, anu suoir via inreinarional nnancial insri-
tutions.
As noted, Bhutan has a bilateral relationship with Austria which
has assisted in its development of hydro. Austria has been active in
its hydro contact with Bhutan since the 1980s, and at the end of that
decade the countries signed a technical co-operation agreement.
The prime bilateral relationship, though, is with India. The coun-
tries have a strategic partnership to jointly develop a series of hydro-
power projects with much of the electricity generated to be exported.
The countries signed a development agreement in 2006 but have been
cooperating on the energy sector since the early 1960s.
Projects under development for the bilateral strategy with India
include the 1.2GW Punatsangchhu-I scheme, on which HCC is work-
ing, and so also is compatriot contractor Larsen & Toubro (L&T).
The Punatsangchhu river basin has been estimated to have the
potential for 19 hydro projects with combined capacity of about
8.1GW to generate around 25,500GWh of electricity per year. The
Manas valley has even more potential and while there is less in the
Amochhu and Wangchhu basins it is still signifcant. IWP& DC
Left: Alstom and Andritz are supply E&M equipment for Dagachhu.
Photo courtesy Alstom Hydro
Construction is getting underway for the mostly
underground works. Photo courtesy Alstom Hydro
SMALL HYDRO
L
OCATED in the Diaoluo Mountain Area in eastern
Hainan, China, Diaoluo River is under the administra-
tion of the Diaoluo Mountain Forestry Bureau. The area
boasts thick forests and abundant rainfall, with compara-
tively evenly distributed annual runoff and a large natural river
fall, meaning it is ideally suited for hydropower development.
Construction work on the 3.2MW Diaoluo River 2nd Cascade
Hydropower Station began in November 2004, with power gen-
eration starting in March 2006. The project was designed by the
Hangzhou Regional Center (Asia-Pacifc) for Small Hydropower
(HRC), with investment from the Electric Power Corporation of
Hainan province and Diaoluo Mountain Forestry Bureau.
PROJECT DETAILS
The Diaoluo River covers 12.3km with a total basin area of 25.61km
2

the Diaoluo River 2nd Cascade hydropower station enjoys a catch-
ment area of 13.59km
2
. The Diaoluo River basin belongs to a tropi-
cal island monsoon climate with an annual average precipitation of
2483.6mm.
The hydro project is a diversion type with a design head of 286mm
and installed capacity of 21600kW. The annual average power gen-
eration is 13.91MkWh.
The main civil structures include the anti-food low weir, the intake, the
open diversion fume (aqueduct), the forebay, penstock and powerhouse.
With a length of 22.8m and a height of 1.7m, the anti-food low
weir is located at the upper end of the waterfall. It is stone mortar
with concrete facing.
The open diversion fume (aqueduct) is of stone blocks with cement
Creative design work
Lin Xuxin and Pan Daqing provide details on the design of the 3.2MW Diaoluo River
2nd Cascade hydropower station in eastern Hainan, China
Main photo, above: The project penstock
Left: The powerhouse, the largest building on the project
SMALL HYDRO
mortar structure 442m long, 1m wide and 1.3m deep. It is covered by
a prefabricated reinforced concrete plate.
The penstock has ten slopes with angles ranging between 7.3-
35.3. It has a total length of 672m with a diameter of 0.8m.
Two Pelton turbine generators are installed in the main power-
house, with a unit capacity of 1600kW, a rated head of 286m, rated
fow of 0.68m
3
/sec and a rated speed of 750r/min.
The outdoor 35kV step-up substation is 15m long and 9.7m wide.
An automatic monitoring system is used at the station.
The total investment of the project was 14.5M Yuan (US$1.95M
[2006 prices]). Presently, sale price to the grid is 0.28 Yuan/kWh
(0.041US$/ kWh). Static payback period is 5.8 years.
There are currently eight operators for the station who were origi-
nally lumbermen. Their homes are near the station so there was no
need for living quarters to be built.
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
Environmental protection
The construction of hydropower projects can sometime have nega-
tive impacts on the natural ecology of the project area. Design of
the Diaoluo project was optimised to avoid negative impacts. The
hydro station is located in the transition zone of the Nature Reserve.
During design, HRC regard the environmental protection as a prior-
ity, adopting small-sized structures as often as possible to avoid con-
centrated and large-scale excavation to the ground surface. Through
this, large trees can be reserved and water loss and soil erosion can
be reduced. The bushes affected during the construction period can
be recovered two or three years after the construction is complete.
At present, the excavated surface has been covered by grass and
bushes.
Layout suitable for local conditions
The headworks were located at the upper end of the waterfall, which
is composed of intact rocks. The fow is usually at the channel of
the upper end of the waterfall only; a river channel lies between the
upper end and the right bank. HRC arranged an overfow weir, silt
sluicing gate at the channel in the upper fall, and an intake at the
right upper reaches of the gate. A trans-river channel aqueduct was
connected after the intake, diverting water into the diversion canal
in the right bank. Such arrangement allows for less excavation and
no need for treatment of the foundation, thus resulting in much less
engineering work.
For water transfer, the aqueduct is set up on the rush channel,
making use of a large rock as the buttress.
Simplifed civil works
The largest building on the project is the powerhouse, the other com-
ponents are very small structures (the anti-food low weir is 1.7m
high, the width of the channel and aqueduct only 1m and the width
of the forebay only 2m). The overfow orifce is ftted to the aqueduct
after the intake, so no control gate is needed at the intake. Thus for
the maintenance work of the channel, operators only have to open
the silt sluicing gate.
Increased power generation
Diaoluo River 1st Cascade Hydropower Station, which was com-
pleted and put into operation in 2008, has a regulating reservoir with
the function of monthly regulation. Before the application of the 1st
cascade station, the annual average power generation for the 2nd cas-
cade station is 12.38mkWh with an annual utilizing hours of 3860h.
After the regulating reservoir was put into use, the annual average
generation is 13.91MkWh, increasing 12.4%. The annual utilizing
hour amounts to 4340h.
Low engineering cost
The total investment of the Diaoluo River 2nd Cascade Hydropower
Station is 14.5M Yuan. The investment per kW is 4530 Yuan; the
investment per kWh is 0.96 Yuan, accounting for 65% of the general
level of the local small hydropower investment.
The project was built without subsidies from the government. Its
selling price to the grid is as low as 0.28 Yuan/kWh, while the price
from the local thermal power plant to the grid reaches 0.39 Yuan/
kWh. In order to get a better economic beneft from the station, the
project investment needed to be minimized. Although the costs of the
station are fairly low, its performances and functions are not affected
and quality has not been degraded. The operation and management
of the project is very convenient and the station has been functioning
well since it began operations.
The authors are Lin Xuxin, deputy chief engineer, and
Pan Daqing, chief of foreign affairs & training, Hangzhou
Regional Center for Small Hydropower (HRC).
Email: dqpan@hrcshp.org. www.hrcshp.org
IWP& DC
Above: The ume; Left: view of the canal
FISH PASSAGE
T
HE St. Lawrence River is one of the largest rivers in North
America. Its flow impacts both the US and Canada,
including the fve Great Lakes. Its also the site of large
hydroelectric power plants owned by the US and Canada
and functions as a deep water seaway connecting the Atlantic Ocean
with the Great Lakes. The energy production and seaway have pro-
vided many benefts but have also created some ecological concerns
including impediment to migration for young American eels.
American eels are extremely benefcial to the ecosystem of the area
as they devour dead fsh, invertebrates, carrion and insects. For the
ecological balance to continue forward, young eels need to move
from the ocean to the upper St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario to
live out their adult lives.
The challenges to migration have been overcome by the construc-
tion of highly effective eel ladders installed by Ontario Hydro, owner
of the Canadian half of the power project, and the New York Power
Authority (NYPA) owner of the US hydroelectric plant.
On the US portion of the project, an 182ft eel ladder provides safe
passage for the American eel to navigate around power plants located
on the St Lawrence River Power Dam during the eels summer migra-
tion upstream to the Great Lakes.
ENGINEERING CHALLENGES
While the eel ladders have proven effective, their construction was
an engineering challenge from the positioning and angle of the
ladder to the water fow necessary to encourage the eels to swim
upstream and fnally how to safely release the eels so they would
not fall back through the plants turbines.
A team of biologists, civil engineers, electricians and software
engineers were called upon by the NYPA to assess the challenges
and create a solution. Gaining best practices information from
other eel ladder projects, particularly the Ontario Hydro ladder
built in the 1990s, engineers determined, for example, that the
ladder could be built at a greater angle giving the eels a shorter
distance to migrate.
Deadline Solutions an engineering services company head-
quartered in Syracuse, NY, which has extensive experience with
control systems and software development for unique applications
was one of the frms contracted by the NYPA. In turn, Deadline
Solutions used Kepware Technologies, Inc., of Portland, Maine, for
its communications software for automation.
Deadline Solutions customized a .NET Windows application
that monitors the eel ladder water fows and provides access for
pump control logic using a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller)
and a PC. The customized application uses a Kepware Technologies
System level monitoring and water fow rates automated through OPC server monitors with
added alarm systems aided in the safe passage upstream for the American eel at the
St. Lawrence-FDR power project in North America
Water ow monitoring aids sh passage
Below: View of the St Lawrence Dam
FISH PASSAGE
solution for communications between the PLC and the PC. Via the
KEPServerEX, its .NET Windows Application allows for communi-
cating and distributing the data among designated recipients.
As the water fows are so critical to the success of the project,
alarms were built into the system via the custom Windows appli-
cation, which sends alerts to the designated recipients if there is an
alarm condition that requires immediate attention.
COMMUNICATION CONTROLS
This eel ladder water fow application was mission-critical as fows
had to be kept at a certain rate to allow the eels to successful migrate.
KEPServerEX was proven as Deadline Solutions had used it in pre-
vious applications. According to Mike Silliman, Software Engineer
at Deadline Solutions: Kepware was the most robust communica-
tions technology we could fnd. It enabled us to track some of the
internal events such as system level monitoring, for example, which
could set an alarm if PLC communication was lost. Now running
successfully for four years, the communications is handled through
fber optics to remote I/O blocks.
The KEPServerEX is straightforward and easy to set up and does
not require a lot of leverage to make it work, Silliman adds. You
install the software, address the device and right away youre collect-
ing data, proving out the base system for retrieving information.
TRACKING RESULTS
Biologists located at the power dam track flow data to ensure
enough water is being fed into the eel ladder system. Having the
capability of monitoring and trending the fow data, NYPA can
maintain its licensing requirements as mandated by the US Fish
and Wildlife Service. The eels migratory period begins in July and
ends in October. Migration begins upstream just after dark when
personnel are not always present. Throughout the evening, the
eels are moving up the ladder system with the aid of water fows.
The American eel requires a steady stream of water to encourage
them to continue up the eel ladder. The water fow must be main-
tained within a range of a few gallons per minute. If the fow is
too aggressive the eels will tire or not attempt to continue up the
ladder. If fows are too low the eels will abandon the ladder or
become stranded. It is the system level monitoring capability of
the KEPServerEX that enables NYPA to record the data accurately
and reliably throughout the evening hours.
Eel counts and water flows are analyzed the following
day and recorded for future reference as dictated by federal
regulatory requirements.
The construction company had specifcations for pumps and con-
trols systems and software. It relied on Deadline Solutions to come
up with the control strategy and develop the software to run the
system. Kepwares out of the box approach saved time confgur-
ing the I/O. And Kepwares licensing scheme allowed Deadline
Solutions to fully develop and test out the system prior to imple-
mentation, thereby streamlining the business aspect of the project
and ensuring success upon delivery.
I can download, build tags and know what Im getting right out
of the gate, comments Silliman. When I arrive at the customer site,
its just a matter of turning on the licensing switch. This guarantees
our success at the customer site, maintaining a high level of effciency
across the breadth of the project.
This system also enables the NYPA to report to regulatory agencies
that the water fows are constant and eel migration friendly.
This was a truly collaborative effort between the New York
Power Authority and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to design a
ladder that would enhance the conservation of American eels without
reducing any power to NYPAs customers, says Michael Thabault,
assistant regional director of Ecological Services, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. This eel ladder utilizes state-of-the-art techniques
to pass American eel upstream at the project. This structure will
help our efforts to conserve the American eel by passing more juve-
niles upstream where they may live to be 30 years old before return-
ing to the ocean to spawn. The monitoring data resulting from daily
eel counts at the ladder will provide the Service with very valuable
information about the numbers and timing of the migrations of this
catadromous species.
For further details please visit Deadline Solutions at www.
deadlinesolutions.com and Kepware at www.kepware.com
IWP& DC
Right, top: Eels ascending short climbing ramp from receiving tank to
entrance to receiving basin
Right, bottom: American eels are benetting from the system
RESEARCH
P
REDICTION of maximum depth of scour with a reasona-
ble accuracy is of immense importance for proper planning,
design and management of hydraulic structures. Spillways
like over-fall, ogee etc are provided for disposal of sur-
plus water and to control water fow at the downstream channel.
Scouring is a complex and dynamic phenomenon affected by many
parameters which are often interrelated and diffcult to understand
because fow in open channel is turbulent; geometry is irregular and
varies with time [Dey & Sarkar 2006, Mason & Arumugam 1985].
There are various hydraulic, morphologic and geotechnical factors
governing the depth, width and length of scour namely discharge
intensity q, height of fall H
1
, bucket radius R, bucket lip angle,
, type of rock, degree of rock homogeneity, run time and mode
of operation of spillway etc. The literature review indicates that a
regression mathematical model for predicting maximum depth of
scour under all circumstances is not readily available using different
fow, material and fuid parameters. However, deterministic models
of varying degrees of complexity have been employed in the past for
modelling the scouring process, with varying degree of accuracy.
The researchers have mainly relied on the conventional experimen-
tal approach to study the scouring by using physical modelling.
Recently Azmathullah et al. (2005, 2006, 2008) have applied soft
computing modelling (ANN) for the prediction of scour param-
eters downstream of ski jump type spillway successfully. It has
been found that the traditional formulae of Veronese (1937), Wu
(1973), Martins (1975), and Incyth (1982) as well as new regres-
sion formula derived by Azmathullah et al. (2005, 2006, 2008) have
failed to predict the maximum scour satisfactorily. So far, a few
studies have reported the use of support vector machines (SVMs)
for the scour prediction. Khan & Coulibaly (2006) examined the
potential of support vector machines in the long-term prediction of
lake water levels. Investigators (Pao-shan et al. 2006) have success-
fully explored the usefulness of SVMs based modelling technique
for predicting real time food stage forecasting on Lan-Yang river.
However, the literature review [Goel 2008] indicates that no one
has attempted ANN and M5 model tree based modelling simultane-
ously on the same data set. The present study aims to explore util-
ity of the back propagation based ANN, M5 model tree (Quinlan
1986, Solomatine et al 2003, 2004), and linear regression for the
maximum scour hole modelling on laboratory and feld data and
comparing its performance with empirical relations and a formula
suggested by Azmathullah et al. (2005, 2006, 2008).
ANN MODELLING
A neural network is an artifcial intelligence technique that mimics a
function of the human brain. Neural networks are general-purpose
computing tools that can solve complex non-linear problems in the
feld of pattern recognition, classifcation, speech, vision and control
systems. The network comprises a large number of simple process-
ing elements linked to each other by weighted connections accord-
ing to a specifed architecture. A neuron consists of multiple inputs
and a single output. The number of neurons in the input and output
layers are fxed by the problem being modelled as the number of input
variables equals number of input neurons and number of output vari-
ables equal number of output neurons. The determination of optimal
number of hidden layers and hidden neurons is usually cumbersome,
as no general methodology is available for their determination. These
networks learn from the training data by adjusting the connection
weights. There is a range of artifcial neural network architectures
designed and used in various felds of hydrology and hydraulics. Most
of the studies employing neural networks for water resource prob-
lems have used back propagation and radial basis function types of
neural networks. In this study, a feed-forward neural network with
back propagation learning algorithm is applied. The basic element of a
back-propagation neural network is processing node and structure of
commonly used back propagation neural network (Figure 1). A three
layer feed forward ANN has been shown in Figure 1, which consists
of three layers known as input, hidden and output layers. Input layer
neurons are called x
1
, x
2
, x
3
; hidden layers neurons are h
1
, h
2
, h
3
and
output layers neurons are O
1
,O
2
,O
3
. A neuron consists of multiple
inputs and a single output. The sum of inputs and their weights lead to
In this peer-reviewed paper, Arun Goel presents an estimation of maximum scour depth downstream
of ogee spillways using back propagation feed forward neural network and M5 model tree
Imput layer Hidden layer Output layer
X
1
h
1
h
2
h
3
X
2
X
3
O
1
O
2
O
3
w w
Bias Bias
4
3
2
1
X
2
Y output
Model 3
Model 4
Model 2
Model 1
Model 6
Model 5
1 2 3 4 5 6
Predicting maximum scour depth
Below, left: Figure 1 Three layer feed forward neural network;
Below, right: Figure 2 Splitting the input space X1.X2 by M5 model tree
algorithm. Each model is a linear regression model
RESEARCH
a summation function. The output of a neuron is decided by an activa-
tion function, which can be step, sigmoid, threshold and linear etc.
Each processing node behaves like a biological neuron and performs
two functions. First, it sums the values of its inputs. This sum is then
passed through an activation function to generate an output. Any differ-
entiable function can be used as activation function. All the processing
nodes are arranged into layers, each fully interconnected to the follow-
ing layer. There is no interconnection between the nodes of the same
layer. In a back propagation neural network, generally, there is an input
layer that acts as a distribution structure for the data being presented to
the network. This layer is not used for any type of processing. After this
layer, one or more processing layers follow, called the hidden layers. The
fnal processing layer is called the output layer in a network. This proc-
ess is repeated until the error rate is minimized or reaches an acceptable
level, or until a specifed number of iterations have been accomplished.
All the interconnections between each node have an associated weight.
The values of the interconnecting weights are not set by the analyst but
are determined by the network during the training process, starting with
randomly assigned initial weights. There are a number of algorithms
that can be used to adjust the interconnecting weights to achieve mini-
mal overall training error in multi-layer networks. The generalized delta
rule, or back-propagation, is one of the most commonly used methods
as suggested by Rumelhart et al (1996).
A neural network based modelling approach requires setting up
several user-defned parameters like learning rate, momentum, opti-
mal number of nodes in the hidden layer, number of iterations and the
number of hidden layers, so as to have a less complex network with
2
1.8
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Actual depth of scour
Martins
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Incyth
Above: Top left: Figure 3 Variation of Actual Scour Depth with Predicted
Scour Depth by Veronese (1937); Top, right: Figure 4 Variation of Actual
Scour Depth with Predicted Scour Depth by Wu (1973);
Bottom left: Figure 5 Variation of Actual Scour Depth with Predicted Scour
Depth by Martin (1975); Bottom right: Figure 6 Variation of Actual Scour
Depth with Predicted Scour Depth by Incyth (1982)
2.0
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Wu
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Veronese
Table 1 Comparison of Correlation Coefficient
Figure
No.
Name of investigator with
method
Correlation
coefcient (r)
Equation used for max
scour depth (t)
Observation and remarks
1 Veronese (1937) 0.73 Most of the points are below the 45 line
2 Wu (1973) 0.73 All points are above the 45 line
3 Martins(1975) 0.69 Most points below the 45 line
4 Incyth (1982) 0.73 Most points below the 45 line
5 Regression (by
Azamathuallah et al 2006)
0.78 Most points below the 45 line, but few are above as well
6 Linear regression 0.66 - Many points below the 45 line
7 M5 model tree 0.82 - Many points near and along the 45 line and show a good trend
8 NN by author 0.91 - Many points below the 45 line, with a few above
RESEARCH
a relatively better generalization capability. Further, training a neural
network requires a number of iterations and a large number of training
iterations may force ANN to over train, which may affect the predicting
capabilities of the model. This study explores the potential of feed for-
ward back propagation ANN in predicting the maximum depth, width
and length of scour hole in ski jump type spillway using laboratory and
feld data set taken from study by using a software called WEKA.
M5 MODEL TREE
One of the popular ways of classifcation of a particular input is a deci-
sion tree. It consists of leaf or answer nodes that indicate a class and
decision nodes that contain an attribute name and branches to other
decision tress. There are many effcient algorithms for building decision
trees such as ID3 and C4.5 by Quinlan (1986). The structure that of
M5 model tree follows the decision trees and has multivariate regres-
sion model at leaf nodes. Thus M5 is a combination of piecewise linear
models each of which are suitable for a particular domain of input space
as shown in Figure 2. The algorithms of MT break the input space of
training data through nodes to assign a linear model suitable to sub area
of input space. The continuous splitting often results in a too complex
tree that needs to be reduced to a simpler tree to improve the generalized
capacity. The value predicted by model at the leaf is adjusted by smooth-
ing operation to refect the predicted values at the nodes along the path
from root to that of leaf. The overall global model is the collection of
these linear models where in optimal splitting of input space is done auto-
matically. The model tree can learn effciently and tackle tasks of high
dimensionality with hundreds of attributes [Bhattacharya & Solomatine
2003] and has been used in fow prediction Solomatine, P.& Michael
[2004], and rainfall runoff modelling [Solomatine & Dulal 2004]. This
model tree algorithm has been applied in the present study for the predic-
tion of maximum scour depth. This study explores the potential of M5
in predicting the maximum depth of scour hole in ski jump type spillway
using laboratory and feld data set taken from study by Azmathullah et
al. (2005, 2006, 2008) using software called WEKA software.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION CRITERIA
The data sets mentioned in a study [Azmathullah et al. 2005, 2006,
2008] are used in the present study for model building and valida-
tion to assess the potential of MLP based ANN modelling and linear
regression in predicting the scour parameters downstream of spill-
way. The correlation coeffcient (CC) values are used as shown in
equation (1) mainly for the performance evaluation of models and
comparison of the results for prediction of scour using empirical rela-
tions and linear regression. The higher value of a correlation coef-
fcient mean a better performance of the model. Further, measured
scour values were plotted against the computed values obtained with
MLP based ANN algorithm, empirical equations and linear regres-
sion. To study the scatter around the line of perfect agreement (i.e. a
line at 45 degrees) was plotted for the data set.
Error Measure Criteria:
1. Correlation coeffcient (r)
(1)
In this study, the data sets of the laboratory and feld data were used
for both creating and testing the models. The choice of input param-
eters used in modelling the scour may infuence the predicting capa-
bilities of the MLP based ANN parameters used in the present study
for comparison of results.
0.6
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d
Azamathulla et al.
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Linear
Above: Top left: Figure 7 Variation of Actual Scour Depth with Predicted
Scour Depth by Azamathuallah (2006); Top right: Figure 8 Variation of
Actual Scour Depth with Predicted Scour Depth by linear regression;
Bottom left: Figure 9 Variation of Actual Scour Depth with Predicted Scour
Depth by M5 tree; Bottom right: Figure 10 Variation of Actual Scour Depth
with Predicted Scour Depth by NN by author
RESEARCH
IWP& DC
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Many soft computing techniques like neural networks are now being
applied to the problems related to hydraulics and hydrologic model-
ling [ASCE 2000a, 2000b], while the use of the M5 model tree is com-
paratively new to the feld of hydraulics and water resource engineering
[Solomatine, P.& Michael (2004), Solomatine & Dulal 2004]. The data
set [Azmathullah et al. 2005, 2006, 2008] used in the present study were
from the laboratory and the feld for an ogee spillway having a ski jump
bucket type arrangement. The data set comprises of a total of 95 runs on
different types of spillway models in the lab as well as in the feld.
A neural network based modelling approach also requires setting
up several user-defned parameters like learning rate, momentum,
optimal number of nodes in the hidden layer, number of iterations
and the number of hidden layers, so as to have a less complex network
with a relatively better generalization capability. Further, training a
neural network requires a number of iterations and a large number
of training iterations may force ANN to over train, which may affect
the predicting capabilities of the model.
M5 model trees are an extension of regression trees in the sense that
they associate leaves with multivariate linear models. Model trees are
a technique for dealing with continuous class problems that provide
a structural representation of the data and a piecewise linear ft of the
class. They have a conventional decision tree structure but use linear
function at the leaves instead of discrete class labels. The number of
instances are to be selected in order to get max correlation coeffcient.
The cross-validation is a method of estimating the accuracy of a clas-
sifcation or regression model. The input data set is divided into several
parts (a number defned by the user), with each part in turn used to test
a model ftted to the remaining parts. In this study, the data sets of the
laboratory and feld data were used for both creating and testing the
models. Graphs have been plotted for difference in actual and predicted
values of the scour results as shown in Figures 3 to 10. For quantita-
tive comparison of results, an error measure, a correlation coeffcient
(r), which presents the degree of linear regression association between
predicted and true values has been considered, which is preferred to, in
many iterative prediction and optimization schemes. The values of corre-
lation coeffcients obtained for different methods are shown in Table 1.
PREDICTION OF MAXIMUM DEPTH OF SCOUR
Use of empirical equations is quite convenient but their drawback is that
they involve idealization, approximation and averaging of varying pro-
totype conditions and results in considerable different scour depth than
the actual values. The results obtained by empirical equations namely
Veronese [1937], Wu [1973], Martins [1975], Incyth [1982] and regres-
sion formula as suggested by [Azmathullah et al. 2005,2006,2008] are
plotted as shown in Figures 4 to 8 respectively. The frst set of analysis
was carried out using ANN and M5 model tree with data for predicting
the maximum depth of scour on downstream of spillway. Two input
parameters namely upstream head H
1
(m), with a discharge intensity per
unit width (q) from the data sets provided by the studies carried out by
[Azmathullah et al. 2005,2006,2008] were used to predict the maximum
depth of scour (t). A number of trials were carried out to reach the various
user-defned parameters required for the linear regression, ANN and M5
model tree based algorithms using WEKA software. Measured versus
calculated values of the maximum scour depth are shown as scatter plots
as given in Figures 8 and 10. It is evident from fgures 3 to 10 that more
points lie on the 45 line when the ANN and M5 model tree were used
to predict the scour in comparison to empirical equations of Veronese
[1937], Wu [1973], Martins [1975], Incyth [1982] and linear regres-
sion. However, the results obtained by non-linear regression equation
[Azmathullah et al. 2005,2006,2008] as shown in Figure 6, are compa-
rable with the other modelling approach (Figures 9 and 10).
The above exercise indicated that the values of correlation coeff-
cient (r) across different formulae and ANN, M5 and linear regression
modelling varied from 0.69 to 0.94. It is maximum in case of back
propagation ANN approach (= 0.94) and minimum in case of linear
regression (= 0.66) as compared to empirical equations and other
regression techniques as shown in the Table 1. The study shows that
the relatively less used ANN and M5 model tree regression scheme
has emerged as the most satisfactory on the present data set as com-
pared to empirical equations suggested by previous investigators.
The fndings of this study encourages the use of back propagation
based ANN and M5 model tree approach in predicting the scour on
spillways as an alternative approach to empirical relations, and linear
regression, although the results are data dependent.
Arun Goel, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering
Department, N. I. T. Kurukshetra 136119, Haryana,
India. Email drarun_goel @yahoo.co.in

The author wishes to acknowledge the authors for data
taken from their paper Azamathullah et al.(2005)
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model trees with applications to ow predictions. 6th international conference
on Hydroinformatics Lionn, Phoon & babovic (eds), world scientic company.
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Meeting for Hydraulic Works, Berlin.
Weka software version 3.4.13 http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/weka/.
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symposium on River Mechanics, Bangkok, Thailand, vol. I, A 13, pp. 16.
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
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MORE THAN 100 YEARS OF HYDROPOWER ENGINEERING
AND CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE
Over 40 years experience in Dams.
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Panel Expert Works

Av. Giovanni Gronchi, 5445 sala 172,
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ZIP Code 05724-003
Phone: +55-11-3744.8951
Fax: +55-11-3743.4256
Email: bayardo.materon@terra.com.br
ba_mater@yahoo.com.br
Lahmeyer International GmbH
Friedberger Strasse 173 D-61118 Bad Vilbel, Germany
Tel.: +49 (6101) 55-1164 Fax: +49 (6101) 55-1715
E-Mail: bernd.metzger@lahmeyer.de http://www.lahmeyer.de
Your Partner for
Water Resources and
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All Services for Complete Solutions
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power economics
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www.norconsult.com
Multidisciplinary consultancy
services through all project cycles
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turbines/pumps and
generators
water resources
environmental and
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AF-Colenco Ltd
Tfernstrasse 26 CH-5405 Baden/Switzerland
Phone +41 (0)56 483 12 12 Fax +41 (0)56 483 17 99
colenco-info@afconsult.com http://www.af-colenco.com
Consulting / Engineering and EPC Services for:
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nancing
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# (47) 67 53 15 06 in Norway
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35 years experience from more than 30 countries
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TRACTEBEL ENGINEERING S.A.
Le Delage - 5 rue du 19 mars 1962
92622 Gennevilliers CEDEX - France
Tel: +33 1 41 85 03 69 Fax: +33 1 41 85 03 74
engineering-fr@gdfsuez.com
www.tractebel-engineering-gdfsuez.com
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
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Yolsu Engineering Services Ltd. Co.
Hrriyet Caddesi No:135 Dikmen, 06450 Ankara,TURKEY
Tel: +90 312 480 06 01 (pbx) Fax: +90 312 483 31 35
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Successful projects in
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Management
For further information please contact
hp.energy@poyry.com and visit www.poyry.com
Stellba Hydro AG Stellba Hydro GmbH & Co KG
Langgas 2 Badenbergstrasse 30
CH-5244 Birrhard D-89520 Heidenheim
Switzerland Germany
Telefon +41 (0)56 201 45 20 Telefon +49 (0)7321 96 92 0
Telefax +41 (0)56 201 45 21 Telefax +49 (0)7321 6 20 73
Internet www.stellba-hydro.ch Internet www.stellba.de
E-Mail info@stellba-hydro.ch E-Mail info@stellba.de
TECBARRAGEM
SLIPFORM
Phone/Fax: + 5511 51812527
tecbarragem@tecbarragem.com.br
Website: www.tecbarragem.com.br
Faster Constructive System for Civil Works
Specialists in Hydroelectric and Dam Projects
Qualied Projectists, Engineers and Technicians
Special Formworks and Slipforms
www.waterpowermagazine.com
The classified section in Water Power & Dam Construction is a well established and
popular section with the magazines combined print and digital circulation of 16,000.
Commonly known as where the buyer meets the seller.
Industry Showcases
The industry showcase section is made up of eighth page adverts (95x65mm) with a
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adverts are also an ideal way to promote product literature and generate interest.
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Telephone: +44 (0)20 8269 7854
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ENRICHING
HYDROPOWER
Sweco Czech Republic Sweco Bulgaria Sweco Norway Sweco Poland Sweco Sweden
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CRANES
GATES
GATES BEARINGS
PAN
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P.O. Box 102436 D-68024 Mannheim / Germany
Phone: + 49 621 42 303-0 Fax: + 49 621 42 303-33
kontakt@pan-metall.com www.pan-metall.com
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HEXECO, Inc. ... a Heat Exchanger Engineering Co.
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OIL COOLERS
For
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www.obermeyerhydro.com
HYDRO CASTINGS
Water turbine components
Castings from 100 kg to 30 tons
Latest CAD-CAM capabilities
Certified Quality Assurance ISO 9001
Environmental Management System ISO14001
Your contact: Mr. Timo Norvasto, Sales Manager
Lokomo Steel Foundry
Tel: +358 204 84 4222
Fax: +358 204 84 4233
Email: timo.norvasto@metso.com
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CONCRETE COOLING
COLD & ICE WATERPLANTS
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ICE STORAGES
KTI-Plersch Kltetechnik GmbH
Carl-Otto-Weg 14/2
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Tel:/Phone: +49 - 7347 - 95 72 - 0
Fax: +49 - 7347 - 95 72 - 22
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Systemhydraulik
SERVO
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FOR
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HYDROMECHANICAL
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ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH
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Phone: +43 (1) 89100, Fax: +43 (1) 8946046
contact-hydro@andritz.com www.andritz.com
Your partner
for renewable
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Voith Hydro Holding GmbH & Co. KG
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A Voith and Siemens Company
Water power plant equipment
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Pumps
Governors
Automation
Modernization of existing power plants
Hydro power services
Ocean energies
INSTRUMENTATION
(DAM MONITORING)
Vikas Kothari: Executive Director Tel: 91 11 29565552 TO 55
Om Metals Infraprojects Ltd. Fax: 91 11 29565551
4th Floor, NBCC Plaza, Mobile: 91 98110 68101
Tower III, Sector 5, Email: vikas@ommetals.com
Pushp Vihar, info@ommetals.com
Saket, New Delhi, 110 017, INDIA Web: www.ommetals.com
Turnkey EPC contracts for:
Radial Gates Trash Racks & TRCM
Vertical Gates Gantry Cranes & EOT
Penstocks Mechanical/ Hydraulic Hoists
Stoplogs Draft Tubes
Turnkey EPC contracts for:
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Vertical Gates Gantry Cranes & EOT
Penstocks Mechanical/ Hydraulic Hoists
Stoplogs Draft Tubes
Om Metals
Geokon, Incorporated manufactures a full range
of geotechnical instrumentation suitable for
monitoring dams. Geokon instrumentation employs
vibrating wire technology that provides measurable
advantages and proven long-term stability.
The World Leader in
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TM
Geokon, Incorporated
48 Spencer Street
Lebanon, New Hampshire
03766

USA
Dam Monitoring Instrumentation
1

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448

1562
1

603

448

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info@geokon.com
www.geokon.com
Turbines up to 20 MW
Governors
Switchboards
79261 Gutach/ Germany
Tel. +49 7685 9106 - 0 Fax: - 10
www.wkv-ag.com
Water-to-Wire Solutions Made in Germany
Turbine & Alternator Manufacture
W
Alternators up to 25 MVA
To advertise in the Professional Directory or
World Marketplace section, or for more
information contact Diane Stanbury.
tel: +44 (0)20 8269 7854
or email:
Copy deadline for February 2011 issue
is 10 February 2011
& DAM CONSTRUCTION
Water Power
WORLD MARKETPLACE
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SMALL HYDROELECTRIC
POWER SETS
SMALL HYDROELECTRIC
POWER SETS
TRASHRACK RAKES
INSTRUMENTATION
(GEOTECHNICAL)
SMALL HYDROELECTRIC
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+43 - 7234 - 83 902
To advertise in the Professional Directory or
World Marketplace section, or for more
information contact Diane Stanbury.
tel: +44 (0)20 8269 7854
or email:
Copy deadline for February 2011 issue
is 10 February 2011
& DAM CONSTRUCTION
Water Power
Turbines up to 20 MW
Governors
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79261 Gutach/ Germany
Tel. +49 7685 9106 - 0 Fax: - 10
www.wkv-ag.com
Water-to-Wire Solutions Made in Germany
Turbine & Alternator Manufacture
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INSTRUMENTATION
(DAM MONITORING)
Brackett Bosker
Automatic Raking Screens

ovivowater.com info.uk@ovivowater.com
Tel: +44 1206 756600
Copyright 2011 GLV. All rights reserved.
WORLD MARKETPLACE
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VALVES VALVES
WATERPROOFING
Member of the Group of companies
Glenfeld Valves Ltd your specialist manufacturer of Discharge,
Control, Non-Return and Isolating Valves (including Butterfy
Valves and Gate Valves) for:
Dams and Reservoirs
Water Transmission Pipelines
Power Stations.
For a world wide network of
manufacturing and service
organisations offering local
support please contact :
Glenfeld Works, Queens Drive,
Kilmarnock, Ayrshire,
KA1 3XF, UK
T: +44 1563 521150
F: +44 1563 545616
E: enquiries@glenfeld.co.uk
For details of our full product
range please refer to our website:
www.glenfeld.co.uk
One of the world's
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even in
www.vag-group.com
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WATERPROOFING AND PROTECTION
of concrete and RCC dams,
embankment dams, hydraulic tunnels,
canals, reservoirs
WITH FLEXIBLE SYNTHETIC MEMBRANES
Turnkey projects: design manufacturing,
supply, installation.
CARPI TECH
Via Passeggiata 1
6828 Balerna - Switzerland
T: +41-91-6954000 F: +41-91-6954009
E: info@carpitech.com www.carpitech.com
WATER TURBINES
TURBINES
Systemhydraulik
SERVO
MOTORS
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FOR
TURBINES
Boltight offers a complete repair, refurbishment and
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Boltight will repair and upgrade equipment to incorporate the
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Boltight recommends that all hydraulic pumps are tted with
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provide an additional safety override feature.
REGULAR CHECK UP.
Boltight advise customers to always check tools before a
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COLLECTION AND DELIVERY INCLUDED.
The fast turnaround service includes collection and delivery.
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T: +44 (0)845 500 5556
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W: www.boltight.com
BOLTIGHT TOOL REFURBISHMENT SERVICE
INDUSTRY SHOWCASE
Recruitment
The ideal way to promote a company vacancy and reach experienced professionals looking for the next
opportunity to advance their career in the hydro power & dam construction industries.
Reach over 16,000 experienced professionals world-wide.
Available in print, or see new opportunities online at: www.waterpowermagazine.com
Contact Diane Stanbury: Tel: +44 (0)20 8269 7854 or email dianestanbury@globaltrademedia.com
03/2011_RZA4 Gstatterb.CH_engl 20.12.2010
Probedruck
C M Y CM MY CY CMY K
COMPACT HYDRO
More than a small solution
ANDRITZ HYDRO GmbH
Lunzerstrasse 78, 4031 Linz, Austria
Phone: +43 (732) 6986 3473, Fax: +43 (732) 6980 2554
contact-hydro@andritz.com
www.andritz.com
ANDRITZ HYDRO of fers COMPACT
HYDRO applications up to 30 MW.
COMPACT HYDRO stands for water to
wire solutions. Every week, somewhere
on our planet, a compact plant star ts
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a wealth of experience is available for
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We focus on the best solution from
water to wire.

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Dam Safety Inspection

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Automatic Raking Screens

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