Early-Bird Grid Connection
If things on Europe's largest power plant construction site continue to proceed as smoothly as they have been, Limberg II can go into operation as early as summer 2011, hence, six months ahead of schedule.
"Construction is moving ahead speedily. At the moment, we‘re a few months ahead of the originally planned completion schedule. If things continue to go as well, we'll be able to take up operation of Limberg II in the summer of 2011 already, even without having to exceed our construction budget," Herbert Schröfelbauer, CEO of VERBUND Austrian Hydropower AG, announced happily. Completion was originally planned for March 2012. 40 meters of tunnel concrete pouring per day Construction works on the expansion of the 3.5 kilometre water works tunnel and the lower chamber of the surge tank an on the verge of completion.
40 metres of tunnel laid per day
the plating pipes for the water works channel will be mounted by spring of 2010. By Christmas, the turbine spiral will be concrete-mounted into the machine cavern; at the same time, construction works are already in progress for the air conditioning, ventilation and cooling water systems, as well as electrical installations. In January 2010, the main assembly of the pump turbines and the motor generator of machine unit 1. To this date, a contract volume of approx. 330 million Euro has been allocated, ninety percent thereof to Austrian companies, who possess vast know how in hydropower plant construction. "Approx. 30% of this will remain within the region for value creation purposes," says Michael Amerer. This way, particularly companies in Salzburg and Pinzgau will get to benefit from the power plant construction.
Twin power plant Limberg III?
Verbund is currently examining the conditions for a second subterranean pumped storage power plant in the rear Kaprun Valley, a twin power plant, so to say, of Limberg II. Identical in structure, Limberg In could be built in the immediate vicinity ot Limberg II, which would yield an additional capacity of 480 MW for the Kaprun power plant group. "This construction would mean a logical expansion of the Kaprun power plant group. For Limberg In, we could use the intrastructure established for Limberg II, such as the tunnel access system, in an optimal manner," Herbert Schrötelbauer explained.
"Limberg II would provide another strong boost for the economy and the labour market of the region, which is paramount especially in economically difficult times," Michael Amerer said with conviction. The environmental impact declaration is to be submitted to the Land of Salzburg as soon as possible. "However, we can realistically only expect to begin construction by 2013 to 2015. Because a prerequisite for the construction of Limberg In is the energy transmission across the 380 kV Salzburg line between Kaprun and Salzburg." Herbert Schrötelbauer commented.