Tereblya-Riks'ka Hydro Power plant. Part two.

The continuation of the report about the trip to the Tereblya-Riks'ka power plant, located in the Protiven' village close to the village of Nizhniy Bystryi.



Everything is ridiculously simple. I was just walking around and admiring the fact how simple the control systems really are.



The table of the manufacturer of «the transmission» on the device...



System controlling the temperature of the nodes. Simple and elegant.



All sorts the devices, gages, lamps, stabilizers, and emergency power blocks can be found on the second floor. The equipment is super old and makes me wonder how it manages to operate perfectly well.



Part of the turbine from up close. This turbine is rotating at 600 rpm. The low frequency buzzing sound which is coming off from the turbines is constantly present in the turbine hall.



«As if the time has just frozen all of a sudden». The old equipment is scattered throughout the territory. Some of it is working quite well and won't break any time soon. The look of if was quite gloomy to say the least though.



«What's in the basement?» some of us may be asking the «tour guide». «A lot of noise and the equipment all covered up in oil» he would answer. This only strengthened our desire to have a look underground. As we are descending, we can see the air saturated with oil vapours. Everthing in the eyesight icluding the handrails, the pipes, the stairs, the chairs and the tables, everything is covered with a layer of oil. And a characteristic noise... I mean the buzz. Low frequency, monotone buzz, seriously affecting one's mental state. We are reaching the lowest level. This is where one can find the chambers containing the water pressing against turbines, the pistol system and the rest of the mechanical stuff.



And this is what the gradual turbine break system looks like. Hydraulic hampers seen on the outer side of the circle prevent the stream of water from hitting the turbine blades.



A closer look at one of such hampers. As you can imagine, stopping a torrent of water accelerated by a 200 meter fall cannot be done instanteniously. The immense force of rushing water would rip the steel like a piece of paper.



This one is the main hamper, for complete blockage of water.



And this here is just a unique tool stand. Everything seen here from a small wrench to the hexahedron key seen on the right is a product of a combined effort by Finnish «Tampella» and Swedish «KMW».

Having explored the lowest level, we are in hurry to get out outside. After a while, the atmosphere down there gets a bit difficult to handle.



The rushing waters are seen to leaving through this discharge channel. Way at the back, you can probably see how the colour changes of the water leaving the plant and flowing into the Rika river.



I assume this artificial lantern is also serving the function of marking lights.



The crane-like vehicle with a wooden cabin seen on this picture is in a perfectly operational mode and is used to close off the lock for when the turbines need to get repaired.



This is the oil storage facility. The oil supply is sufficient to have the power plant running for 48 hours in case of an emergency situation.



Throughout the whole area of the power plant the outlets of the oil line are sticking out of the gorund. The oil is being used not only for the bearings of the turbines but also for the transformers.

I'd like to express my deep gratitude to the workers of the hydro power plant for letting us in and showing us around. I was profoundly impressed by the facility and gained a lot of respect for it. If you happen to be in that part of our region, I would strongly recommend stopping by for a tour.

A settlement of the construction crew who built the hydro power plant can be seen on this picture. 1953-1957. Kindly provided by Arkadi. Clickable.

A settlement of the power plant construction crew

Read more: Tereblya-Riks’ka Hydro Power plant. Part one.

05.01.2011. 09:11

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