The 40-meter-long and five-meter-high special load had
to negotiate various obstacles.
The component, which was fabricated in Asia, was shipped via Rotterdam to the Portuguese port of Leixeos and transported from there to its destination by a special truck.
“Our biggest challenge in getting a just-in-time delivery of such a large component in the first place was coordinating the interfaces between the various carriers and everyone else in-volved in the transport on the journey from China to Europe. The transport time as such was around eight weeks in the end as planned, but the preparation took much longer,” says Stephan Pfeuffer, Head of Shipping at Voith Hydro Heidenheim.
At the new Frades II pumped storage plant in northwestern Portugal, the reversible pump turbines will be controlled by two spherical valves. As well as the spherical valve, Voith is also supplying the plant with two variable-speed, reversible 390-MW-pump turbine units, two asynchronous motor generators, each with a rated output of 440 MVA, the frequency con-verter and control technology as well as hydraulic steel components.
The system is set to go on stream this year to become the largest variable-speed pumped-storage power plant on the continent.
