HOBAS Pressure Pipes DN 1800 feed water to power plant Talbach, AT

In the Austrian city Schladming, two over 90-year-old hydropower plants have been replaced with a modern one. The new facility is designed for a flow rate of 5800 l/s, has a head of 10.8 m and a capacity of 467 kW. A 60-m-long HOBAS Pressure Pipeline DN 1800, SN 10000, PN 2 ensures the reliable energy output. The two old hydropower plants owned by the families Seebacher and Kraiter have been built in the years 1895 and 1923. The power station Seebacher was even the oldest electricity plant in the Austrian region Upper Styria. Since the necessary water consents for both power plants would have expired within the next years, it was decided to shut down the power plant Seebacher and to renovate and expand Kraiter. Construction works started in September 2011. During the planning phase the focus was on the choice of pressure pipeline. There were several arguments that supported the use of HOBAS Products: Their excellent hydraulic properties and minimal friction loss due to the mirror-like inner surface as well as the high abrasion and corrosion resistance represent a long service life. Another decisive advantage is the low weight of HOBAS Products. The site conditions made the installation quite complex and time-consuming. The pipe route leads closely past the residence of family Kraiter and then right through a sawmill from the 19th century, and both the structure of the house and the old mill were to be preserved. The pipes had to be lifted above the family residence and then pulled through a narrow opening into the sawmill building, where they were mounted on concrete supports. The simple handling and low weight of HOBAS Products made the difficult installation works a lot easier. Construction works were successfully completed in December 2012 and the small hydropower plant Talbach was put into operation right on time for the Ski World Cup 2013. Today, it produces almost four times as much clean energy compared to the two old power plants. ,