Power plant products | Water lubricated elastomer bearings
Two European hydropower plant operators have replaced the bearings on their Francis-type turbines with water-lubricated bearings from Canada’s Thordon Bearings after oil was found to be leaking from their original metal bearings. Thordon bearings are not metal, but are based on the company’s elastomer technology, In two separate contracts, Croatia-based Skoring d.o.o., Thordon’s distributor for the region, supplied wicket gate bearings to the 36.8 MW Hrvatska Elektroprivreda-operated plant in Rijeka, Croatia, in July. In August, they retrofitted new turbine guide bearings to turbines at the 1500 kW Elektro Ljubljana-operated HPP Sava Brod plant, in Slovenia. For Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP Group), the decision to replace the original greased bronze wicket gate bearings on the Rijeka plant’s 18.4MW Turbine B was an easy one – Skoring
has been supplying Thordon bearings to this operator for more than twenty years. Skoring’s technical manager, Goran Orlic: “We have provided the utility supplier with numerous bearings over the years, with our first installation taking place at the Ozalj hydropower plant in 2002. Since then, we have retrofitted
turbines at HEP plants in Fuzine, Zagreb, Lepenica, and more.”
In July 2021, ThorPlas-Blue wicket gate bearings were retrofitted to Turbine A of the Rijeka plant, and in May 2023 Turbine B was fitted out with the same bearings. For each turbine, the Thordon scope of supply comprised twenty self-lubricating ThorPlas-Blue bearings, machined to fit outside shaft diameters of 105mm (4.13in), and twenty 135mm (5.31in) Thorseal polymer lip seals.
Above: SXL bearings being bonded into the turbine guide bearing housings
The smaller 100-year-old Elektro Ljubljana plant near Ljubljana, Slovenia, was retrofitted with Thordon SXL water-lubricated turbine guide bearings to both 499 kW Francis turbines in August. Skoring supplied the SXL bearing material to local turbine refurbishment company Hydro-hit for final machining to fit shaft diameters of 305mm.
FASTWIND project funded by the European Space Agency
Software developer Exceedence, Simply Blue Group, and NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, have joined forces following a successful bid for a European Space Agency (ESA) grant to support a project called FASTWIND (Financial Analysis using Satellite Technology for Offshore Wind Energy) which aims to use satellite data from ESA’s satellite network to conduct wind resource measurement and energy yield analysis. FASTWIND is a cloud-based technology and financial tool for the offshore wind sector. It is driven by wind resource information derived from synthetic aperture radar data from the Sentinel-1 satellites. FASTWIND intends to develop a cloud-based system that integrates
Exceedence’s techno-economics analysis software, Exfin, and NORCE’s processing chain for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data that produces satellite wind products for resource mapping. The development will involve building new data management services, an enhanced analysis and optimisation engine, and a new user interface within the existing Exfin architecture.
Speaking about the project, Ray Alcorn, Founder & CEO, Exceedence, said “FASTWIND will allow offshore wind developers to make data-driven decisions using a financial digital twin of their projects drawing from satellite-based earth data. Potential applications range from
optimising site selection to improving bankability and maximising the financial performance of operational projects based on forecasting. There is a strong commercial opportunity for this solution currently in the fixed-bottom offshore wind sector which will translate seamlessly to the floating offshore wind sector. We have a unique proposition which will directly connect satellite wind data through a techno-financial package ultimately yielding better placed, optimised and lower cost wind projects.”
The project is being co-funded by the European Space Agency under the ARTES 4.0 Business Applications – Space Solutions mechanism.
Software to increase Vienna’s grid capacity
Aspern Smart City Research has commissioned Siemens to roll out its new low-voltage software to aspern Seestadt in Vienna. It is believed the new software could reduce power outages by 30 %.
Using the next generation grid management software, LV Insights X, ASCR will be able to visualise the entire low-voltage network of aspern Seestadt, a part of Vienna. aspern Seestadt is one of Europe’s largest urban development projects. With a digital twin, ASCR can identify critical segments, increase the usable capacity of its grid, and integrate more renewable energy
without additional grid expansion, supporting its decarbonisation efforts.
“The use of decentralised, renewable energy resources is essential in sustainable urban areas. Increased flexibility and transparency are the key to optimizing network planning and management. With LV Insights X we can take this to a completely new level in aspern Seestadt, Vienna,” commented Matthias Gressel, general manager of ASCR.
LV Insights X was launched in June 2023 and is said to provide the foundation for flexible, adaptable, and scalable low-voltage
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grid management. Using existing network data, ASCR can create a complete digital twin of its distribution network, as well as plan and operate it more flexibly with near real-time insights. Broadly speaking, the software enables distribution system operators to reduce outage times by up to 30 %. The software is an off- the-shelf, ready-to-use solution, with a short implementation time. It is designed to have open standard interfaces, which can be configured with a simple drag and drop, and is based on a flexible concept that allows it to ‘fit seamlessly into an existing system landscape.’
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