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Voith News
Deschutes Valley Water District in Oregon invests in small hydro with turbine order from Voith
Deschutes Valley Water District (DVWD) is nearing the completion of the installation of a new horizontal Francis turbine from Voith. The new unit replaces an older double Francis turbine, boosting the facility’s performance while also reducing its utility costs.
“We found that replacing our non-operative double Francis machine, with a properly sized and more efficient turbine would serve our customer’s needs with regard to both resiliency and cost savings. Voith’s track record and capabilities with small hydro lined up with our requirements of expertise, support and exceptional value,” said Joel Gehrett, General Manager at Deschutes Valley Water District. “I have been exceedingly impressed with the coordination of the Voith team to ensure proper installation of the unit, especially under our current situation where travel and onsite presence has been restricted. We will soon be commissioning the turbine with their experts onsite and anticipate everything will operate as expected.”
The new Francis unit replaced an outdated double Francis machine and will be used to drive a water pump that delivers 1,500 gallons per minute out of the aquifer controlled by DVWD and is then delivered to its domestic customers. The turbine will be operated by a digital control system, also provided by Voith, to further improve its performance.
“Combining the efficiency of the new turbine with the benefits of new digital controls will result in significant cost savings for DVWD by reducing the electricity necessary for pumping at the facility,” said Daniel Olson, Sales Manager, Voith Hydro North America.
With this new turbine, DVWD is now at the forefront: demonstrating the flexibility of small hydro and how it can truly deliver measurable benefits to facilities of this size.
Daniel Olson, Sales Manager, Voith Hydro North America
The turbine for DVWD is just one of the small hydro projects Voith is currently working on. An additional order includes one for Lake Byllesby Dam in Minnesota. Voith’s small hydro turbine design has proven to be popular worldwide thanks to its highly configurable design that makes it easy to integrate with existing civil infrastructure.
“Our customers are finding that Voith offers a small, personal team to support these types of projects, and those teams are backed by Voith’s global resources and more than 150 years of experience in the field,” said Carl Atkinson, Director of Sales, Voith Hydro U.S. “We’ve found that our research and development for large hydro projects scales down to benefit small hydro projects, too. That’s what helps Voith stand out – proven technology.”
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