A DAVID AMONGST THE GOLIATHS:

HEIDEMANN WASSERKRAFTANLAGEN ( HEIDEMANN HYDRO )

HISTORY

Heidemann Wasserkraftanlagen was founded by Mr. Tilman Heidemann who grew up in a small hydropower station in southern Germany and already then was fascinated by the almost everlasting motion of the turbines.

In the mid-eighties when hydropower regained its importance through the upcoming discussion about renewable energies in Germany, Mr. Heidemann, who previously had worked on small hydropower stations hobbywise, decided to investigate the opportunities of building up a small company for maintenance and repairs especially for small hydro plants.

After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, of which Germany was directly affected, the discussion about renewable energies was also set forth by the government which resulted in the introduction of a new energy conservation bill.

Producers of renewable energy were now to be supported by much better reimbursements for the produced energy, as well as by large government subsidies.

The impact of these ameliorations on the demand on the hydropower market was immense and so finally in 1987 Mr.Heidemann, who in the mean time had completed his training as engineer, founded Heidemann Wasserkraftanlagen.

This step proved to be a full success from the start.

Soon it had to be realised that if the company wanted to participate in this large market they could not only offer repairs and maintenance but had to extend their range of capacities also to new equipment.

So in the years 1988 to 1991 Mr. Heidemann added a workshop for steel constructions to the existing mechanical workshop and started with production of trash rakes, sluice gates etc.

Until today a great variety of projects has been carried out, almost all of them are unique constructions. Thanks to the small size and flexibility of the company, Heidemann Wasserkraftanlagen became a good address for exceptional constructions where other firms were either too expensive or had too long delivery times . The only standardised products are three different versions of trash rakes that were entirely designed and built in the own workshop.Quite a few have now been in service for up to eleven years with excellent service reports.

Another important step for Heidemann Wasserkraftanlagen was made in 1988 when the Catholic Mission in Cameroon ordered a complete micro hydropower unit for a hospital in the north west of the Cameroon mountains.

The project included planning, design of weir, penstock, powerhouse and selection and delivery of the machine set up. The power station was put into service in April 1989 and has been working since then without serious failures.

Since 1990 the company participated in various planning of small hydro stations world-wide. From 1992 onwards Heidemann Wasserkraftanlagen extended their activities into the Asian Pacific region. Since 1996 a close co-operation with Powerflow, a Wellington - New Zealand based company, has been established. Powerflow are active in the same type of technology and the service and product profiles of both companies match excellently.

REFURBISHED EQUIPMENT: AN IMPORTANT BRANCH

If you look at the web site www.hydropower.de apart from the company profile and the conventional topics like maintenance and repairs, trash rakes, steel construction etc. there are two more important sections:

"Refurbished Turbines" and "Micro hydro Stations For Remote Areas"

Both topics are closely linked as for example, apart from the electric controls, the already mentioned Fonjumetaw hydro station in Cameroon was built from entirely refurbished equipment

In the 50's and 60's more than 50% of the small hydropower plants in Germany had become obsolete of which again more than 50% had been restored since. The rest was either smashed up or salvaged. In the late 70ies until the early 90ies there was a real boom in Germany, resulting in the run on disused turbines to be salvaged and put in stock. A "second hand turbine market" emerged and many new power plants that have been built between 1988 and 1999 were fitted with second hand turbines.

Today second hand turbines are still an important part of the small hydro market. Their greatest advantage doubtless is the price that can be down to 40% of the costs of a new unit, which appeals to planners of small hydro stations that would otherwise stagger along the border of economical viability. Even though most of the refurbished turbines available have been manufactured between 1900 and 1960 their efficiency mostly is not much lower than of those of today´s designs.

Refurbished turbines have passed an intense treatment beginning with an extra carefully dismantling and transportation, over shotblasting and conservation of parts to be reused, defining repair measures, replacing and manufacturing parts that are beyond repair, machining, mending cavitations etc. until final test assembly.

Heidemann Wasserkraftanlagen also had their good share in this business until today.

The convincing performance of the Francis spiral turbine used at Fonjumetaw Hydro station in Cameroon encouraged to put more effort into this matter. There is a considerable sum of turbines available for new projects and also an intense networking with other colleagues guarantees that a refurbished machine (and sometimes even a brand new machine that for whatsoever reason was never installed) can be found for almost every project.

Critical aspects and limitations concerning refurbished equipment:

The most significant limitation of refurbished equipment doubtless is the limited number of salvaged turbines available and also the limited range of head, flow/output. Most of the hydro plants in Germany were located on creeks and rivers with an available head between 2 and 30 – 40 meters and flows of 100 l/s up to 10 m³/s which is obviously small hydro in the range up to 1 MW to 1.5 MW. ( Fonjumetaw hydro: 20m head/300 l/s).

Furthermore the usage of second hand equipment is limited to the turbines only. Generators and speed increasers, electrical equipment are usually outdated.

The only types of turbines that are preferably suitable for refurbishment are Francis turbines and Kaplan turbines as the parts usually are massive and of cast iron. Cross flow turbines are usually made from steel and once the runner is corroded or damaged and other steel parts are badly corroded the replacement of the turbine is more advisable i.e. refurbishment of such machines is out of question. The same is valid for Pelton turbines.

Another aspect is that although the idea of using refurbished equipment was especially meant as a chance for third world and developing countries to get small hydropower projects off the ground, those projects stall out as governments do not approve refurbished turbines and for private people even this is still too costly. Beyond this private investors and government departments are hesitant to accept refurbished equipment as there (apparently) is no proof of an efficient, trouble-free operation.

Further outlook

The steady growth of hydropower business in Germany, the over all positive experiences with refurbished equipment world-wide and the ability of building turnkey small hydro projects have encouraged Heidemann Wasserkraftanlagen to envisage build-own-operate projects in Australia as the positive development of "green"power prices together with a recent study on irrigation dams suitable for installation of small hydropower plants (only in New South Wales) outlines a promising potential for future activities.

Recksteinstrasse 14
Germany-72393 Burladingen

Tel: + 49 + 74 75 70 35
Fax: + 49 + 74 75 2 47
Email: hhyp@partner.de
www.hydropower.de