Forgemasters wins hydropower contract
SHEFFIELD Forgemasters has won a contract worth more than £800,000 to supply parts for turbines in a new hydro-electric dam in Colombia.
The major engineering firm will make runner crowns and bands, the main working components in the Francis water turbines that are being installed in the dam under construction on the Sogamoso River.
The deal with the hydro division of Austrian engineering group Andritz is the latest in a series of hydropower projects Forgemasters has played a role in including the Three Gorges dam scheme on China’s Yangtze River and India’s largest hydropower plant, Karcham Wangtoo.
Volker Schaffer, sales director at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “Andritz Hydro is an existing customer of SFIL and the Sogamoso contract reflects the time and effort that Sheffield Forgemasters has put into the hydropower sector over the past two decades.
“During this time, Sheffield Forgemasters has been at the forefront of component production for power generation, which has led us to develop highly refined processes for creating critical components which operate under extreme stresses.
“South America has developed a high demand for renewable energy, such as hydropower, and the market will continue to grow on a global scale as demand outstrips supply.”
Each casting for the turbines that SFIL will produce takes six months to complete and the Sogamoso plant will eventually produce 5056 gigawatt-hours of power every year.
The contract with Andritz is due to be completed in June 2011 with the majority of the work done at Forgemasters’ new machine shop on Brightside Lane.
