By rosebell
While construction works for the conversion of the run-of-river power plant to a pumped storage power plant is up to Porr, currently it has completed excavation of the section of the access tunnel that passes beneath Highway 462 and is a key section of the access tunnel for the Rudolf Fettweis power plant conversion in Germany.
As the tunnel divides into the access tunnel and the energy discharge tunnel, following passing beneath the road, the half of the digging process in the direction of the power station cavern has been completed from the intersection of the Schutter tunnel, secondary and access tunnels, whereas excavation work is being carried out in the secondary tunnel towards the water storage cavern and in the energy discharge tunnel.
Also the whole bored length of the project is around 5.3km, of which almost 4.7km is tunnels.
With 20m width and 42m hight, the power plant cavern is about 123m long. While around 400,000m3 is being excavated in total, 200,000m3 is aimed for water storage in the main and secondary tunnels.
The date of commencing the construction works was autumn 2023 and the project is slated to be completed in 2027.
In 1914 the heritage-protected run-of-river power plant in Forbach was launched and converting it to a pumped storage power plant is significantly due to increase its efficiency.
The responsibility of constructing the mined caverns, water reservoirs and tunnels, the shell of the power plant cavern, construction of two pressure shafts, as well as foundation engineering work, is upt o Porr.
