Pumping power

Alstom has been awarded a €125m (£111) contract to equip the new Nant de Drance hydropower station, near Finhaut in the south-west Canton Valais of Switzerland, with its first variable-speed pump storage power plant.

The project, a venture between Swiss energy provider Alpiq, Forces Motrices Valaisannes (FMV) and Swiss federal railways SBB, demonstrates the first ever use of this type of system in Switzerland.

With a total power-generation capacity of 628MW, the new plant will eventually supply an average power consumption equivalent to more than 600,000 homes.

Alstom will supply four of its 157MW vertical Francis reversible turbines and four 170 MVA vertical asynchronous motor/generator units to the new plant and will handle the commissioning of the equipment.

The new installation will use both a conventional pump turbine and a variable-speed pump turbine.