FICHA TÉCNICA:
Nombre: Planta hidroeléctrica FALA, 1:300, Betexa.
Código: BET-0247
Fabricante: BETEXA
Escala:1:300
Tamaño:
Dificultad: Difícil
Hojas: 24
Piezas:
Formato: +A4
Otros: It was 90 years, on the 6th of May in 2008, from the historical moment when the first three turbines started turning and producing electricity in the Drava valley. In those days the construction of such a facility was an extraordinary victory for all the designers, constructors and electro technicians from all around the Europe. They built a hydro power plant that was the largest object of its kind in north eastern Europe. In these 90 years Fala hydro power plant produced 16,7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. But its value is not only shown in cheap electricity. With its electricity began the electrification and with it the economic growth of Slovenia from Ruše and Maribor to Laško and all the way to Prekmurje. The experts building the Fala HPP learned a lot of new things and their experience was taught to next generations. The experience they gained shined in the times of intensive construction of power plants on river Drava, when the builders of HPP Fala proved themselves as real „Drava beavers”. StEG from Austrian Graz decided to build Fala power plant in the beginning of 19th century. Their intention was to supply Maribor and Graz region with electricity. The company received a concession to build the power plant in 1912 and began with preliminary works and construction next year. The construction was carried out by a company from Wien Albert Buss and Co. The construction site was run by the workers of swiss rail road bank. The original plan was to build seven electrical generators with Francis turbines of 6000 HP, but the work was prolonged by the thunderous times of World War I and dissolution of Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the 6th of May 1918 the first three generators started producing electricity. The fourth one started two days later and the fifth on 23. of May. They postponed the start of the next two generators because the borders changed and there was not enough electricity consumers. The largest consumer was the factory in Ruše, which in those times used only approximately 5 MW of power. The increase in demand came not until 1920 when city network of Maribor was connected to HPP Fala and transmission lines towards Prekmurje, Varaždin and Laško were built. The sixth generator was finished in 1925 and the seventh in 1931. Both had more efficient Francis turbine with 10.000 HP built in. Fala HPP with seven generators was a real giant among electricity producers in those times, producing a fifth of all electricity used in Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Energievorsorgung Sudsteiermark A.G from Graz took the supervision of power plant over during the World War II. They wanted to buy it from Swiss owners, but the war slowed the sale negotiations and after the war the power plant became public property of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by the act of nationalization in 1946. After the war new power plants were gradually built on river Drava: Dravograd, Maribor island, Ožbalt, Vuhred and Vuzenica. Once the entire chain of power plants along the section from Dravograd to Maribor was constructed, the need for increased capacity of the turbines of Fala HPP became evident. The power plants lying upriver from Fala were designed for an installed flow of 460 m3/s. Due to the flow nature of the power plants in the chain, Fala represented a narrow throat with 370 m3/s . There was a lot of discussion how to modernize the “old lady”. The winning proposition was to install the eight generator and build into it a new turbine that was made right after the war in Austrian factory Voith for HPP Maribor island. After a long “odyssey” the turbine arrived to Yugoslavia only in 1957.It was not decided to renovate the power plant till 1966. They bought a Russian turbine for the eight generator. The construction of it was not started till 1973 and it only started producing electricity on 6th of October 1977. With it Fala power plant got a generator with 16,8 MW of power and increased the total turbine flow to the level of the other power plants on Drava. Power plant’s net capacity increased to 48MW and annual generation of electricity to 220 kWH. But it was already known during the construction of the 8th generator that such a renovation was not a real solution. Fala became a huge construction site again in 1987. In the next four years they built a new engine house on the right river bank. They built in two generators each with 20 MW power and an installed flow of 350 m3/s. Now Fala HPP consisted of three modern engines (eight, ninth and tenth) with installed power of 57 MW. But the renovation work was not finished yet. It has not gotten its todays characteristics till 1995 when the Russian turbine in eight generator was exchanged due to obsolescence and problems with lubrication systems. After the finished renovation in 1996 all the seven old generators were taken offline – after 78 years of operation – and put up as conservation of technical heritage. Today Fala HPP is a reliable producer of electricity. The installed power of the renovated power plant is 59MW with installed flow of 505 m3/s and annual production of 270 million kWh of electricity.
Inglés, alemán, checo y polaco.