Hafslund Selects ANDRITZ to Upgrade Strandfossen Hydropower Plant

Hafslund has selected ANDRITZ to rehabilitate and upgrade the Strandfossen hydropower plant on the Glomma River. This industrial project focuses on replacing aging mechanical infrastructure and implementing modern industrial automation systems to support regional grid stability.

Operational Challenges and Technical Requirements
The Strandfossen facility, originally commissioned in 1979, operates with legacy mechanical equipment that requires modernization to handle the current demands of the Norwegian electrical grid. As variable renewable energy generation increases within the region, baseline power infrastructure must provide greater operational flexibility to maintain grid stability. Hafslund selected ANDRITZ to execute this upgrade due to the need to integrate complex mechanical replacement parts with updated digital infrastructure, combining Hafslund's operational infrastructure with specialized engineering expertise to scale up the existing facility.

Technical Architecture and Component Responsibilities
The modernization project operates on a water-to-wire engineering scope. ANDRITZ is responsible for the design, manufacturing, and installation of a new Kaplan turbine and a corresponding generator. The technical solution also requires the complete replacement of the existing electrical power systems and industrial automation frameworks to enable precise monitoring and faster response times to grid fluctuations.

Technical responsibilities are distributed across specialized industrial facilities. The generator will be engineered and manufactured in Weiz, Austria. To validate fluid dynamics and discharge efficiency prior to manufacturing, the hydraulic model testing of the new runner will occur at the ANDRITZ hydraulic laboratory in Tampere, Finland.

Deployment Phases and Infrastructure Integration
The upgraded systems will be deployed directly at the existing Strandfossen site in Norway, integrating the new mechanical and electrical components into the established civil infrastructure. Implementation phases are scheduled to conclude with final commissioning in 2028. ANDRITZ will manage the engineering and integration roles, ensuring that the new automation systems interface correctly with Hafslund's broader grid monitoring networks. This project builds on an existing relationship between the two enterprises, which includes the ongoing technical rehabilitation of Hafslund's Vamma run-of-river hydropower facility.

Operational Benefits and Generation Metrics
The primary application for this modernization is large-scale renewable power generation and grid load balancing. By increasing the discharge capacity of the facility, the technical upgrades will increase the total installed capacity of the plant by 6 MW, resulting in a new total of 28.5 MW. This represents an installation capacity expansion of more than 25 percent.

Consequently, the annual electrical generation is projected to rise from 154 GWh to 168.5 GWh. This increased output mechanism directly enhances process stability and long-term maintainability for the regional power supply, delivering reliable baseline energy to the grid infrastructure.

Edited by Natania Lyngdoh, Induportals editor, assisted by AI.

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