Leak monitoring of Kaplan turbines

Power station Braunau-Simbach

The power station Braunau-Simbach was the first power plant of the Österreichisch-Bayerischen Kraftwerke AG and was built in the years 1951 – 54. The main building is above Simbach and Braunau at river Inn – km 61.1. The catchment area of the Inn at this point is 22.700km². The weir and the power house are perpendicularly located to the flow axis in an alignment and dam the water level of the Inn at mean-flow conditions around 12,1m. The weir is located on the Bavarian and the power house on the Austrian side of the river. The power house is built in the usual design at the Inn without building construction. This design represents a particularly economical solution of river power plants construction. The capacity of this plant is 1.150m³ / s. (Source: ÖBK)

Leak monitoring of Kaplan turbines

In the power plant Braunau-Simbach 4 Kaplan turbines are installed with vertical shaft. Directly on the turbine shaft, a three-phase synchronous generator is arranged respectively. Each turbine has a throughput capacity of approximately 250 m³ / s. The maximum capacity is approximately 25.600kW.

Because these turbines are at the heart of the power plant, they must be strictly monitored. The entry of leachate between the generator and turbine represents a serious threat not only to the Kaplan turbine but also for the entire machine area.

For this reason, these 4 spaces were provided with seperated ultrasonic sensors Sonicont USG of ACS-CONTROL-SYSTEM. These reliably detect the height or the occurrence of possible leachate.

The corresponding transmitter Sonicont USF, which also serves as a display device, is mounted separately in the switch cabinet.

Thus, the current state can always be recorded and monitored. This serves not only to simplify the read function, but also contributes to the safety of workers at the power plant, which would otherwise have to climb down into the dangerous interspace.