Hydroelectric Power Plants
Kninicky Hydropower Plant under the Brno reservoir in Brno-Bystrc was designed as a peak source destined to overlay increased electrical energy consumption at morning and evening peaks. It was put into operation in 1941.
Komín Hydropower Plant on the river Svratka equalizes through-flow for MVE Kninicky under the Brno reservoir today, although it was built as a pumped-storage hydropower plant earlier than the Brno reservoir. It was put into operation in 1923.
The small hydropower plant Bukovec is situated at the end of a restored diversion channel of the Berounka river. It is a run-of-river plant which uses the hydrostatic drive of the river generated by a solid weir on the border of the cadastries of Pilsen suburbs Bukovec and Bolevec. The inlet into the diversion channel is ca 700 m before the plant and is mounted with coarse racks and sluice gates.
In the place previously used to float timber to Dlouha Ves, where it was then tied into rafts, an important Prague entrepreneur Cenek Bubenicek founded a saw-mill and a lumber-yard in the middle of the 19th century. In 1908, the saw-mill was modernized and three water wheels were installed there. Two wheels ran two types of frame saws for processing various types of timber , the third was used for running wood-working machinery. When the town of Kasperske Hory became the owner of the whole facility, it applied to Susice district office for a permission to build a power plant.
In the 20´s of the 20th century, the largest natural lake in the Czech Republic – Černé jezero in Šumava – inspired the chief chancellor for technology from the State Office in Prague to build the first pumped-storage hydropower plant in Czechoslovakia then. Západočeské elektrárny became the project investor and technology was designed and supplied by Skoda Works Plant in Pilsen. Construction work was completed and the plant was put into operation in 1930.
The Dalešice waterworks was built as a part of the nearby Dukovany Nuclear Power Station project. It includes the Dalešice water reservoir with the capacity of 127 million m3 of water, the Mohelno equalization basin, the Dalešice Pumped-Storage Hydroelectric Power Station, and the Mohelno run-off-river hydroelectric power station.
The Dlouhé Stráně Hydroelectric Power Station is situated in Moravia, near Loučná nad Desnou in the district of Šumperk. It prides itself with three superlatives: it has the largest reversing water turbine in Europe, 325 MW; it has the largest head of all power stations in the Czech Republic, 510.7 m; and it has the largest installed capacity in the Czech Republic, 2 x 325 MW.
The Hněvkovice Hydroelectric Power Station forms a part of the Vltava Cascade, and is related to the Temelín Nuclear Power Station project. The water reservoir contains 22.2 million m3 of water, its water surface covers an area of 312 hectars, and it raises the water level on a 18.6 km long stretch of the Vltava River, all the way to the weir at Hluboká nad Vltavou, near the town of České Budějovice.
The hydropower plant is situated on the Labe river, just before its junction with the Orlice river.Three sets of the plant use the maximum head of 4.2 m provided by an adjacent radial-gate weir with two weir sluice gates.The original technological equipment of the hydropower plant consisting of 3 Francis turbines coupled directly to the generators drive, produced by Kolben in 1911, was reconstructed and the turbines were replaced in 1925.
A hydropower plant is a part of the Hracholusky reservoir. Building work on this earth dam started in 1959. In 1964 it was completed and put into operation. For Zapadoceska energetika, the Hracholusky reservoir became a substitute for a small hydropower plant Pnovany, which was flooded due to the construction of the new hydroelectric installation.
The Kamýk Hydroelectric Power Station also forms a part of the Vltava Cascade. Its 10 km long reservoir links up with the stilling basin of the Orlík hydroelectric power station. It contains 12.8 million m3 of water, and it predominantly balances the fluctuating runoff from the peak-load Orlík hydroelectric power station. The power station’s operation is remotely controlled from the control centre at Štěchovice to start up at times when its output is needed to regulate the output of the national power system.
The Kořensko Hydroelectric Power Station represents another link in the Vltava Cascade, and it was built together with the Hněvkovice hydroelectric power station. It is situated at the end of the Orlík water reservoir where it was originally to be built as a submerged stage together with the Orlík power station. The reservoir formed by the weir contains 2.8 million m3 of water and stretches as far as the weir at Hněvkovice.
Les Království was built on the Labe river, above Dvůr Králové nad Labem, during the First World War. A hydropower plant that had been added to it was put into operation in 1923. It had two horizontal Francis turbo-generating sets with double boiler turbines. The plant was built for a maximum usable flow of 12 m3/s, but due to frequent failures of turbines, the usable flow was restricted to 9 m3/s. The total installed capacity of the plant was 1120 kW.
The Lipno I Hydroelectric Power Station is a part of the Vltava Cascade. Its water reservoir, covering an area of almost 50 km2, forms the largest artificial lake in the Czech Republic. The reservoir’s volume is 306 million m3 of water, and it is used in a long-term runoff regulation to increase the minimum flow, limit flood peaks, and increase the generation at the other power plants along the Vltava Cascade. The water surface of the lake is set in the beautiful landscape of the Šumava Mountains, it is 44 km long and 14 km wide at its widest point, and is used for summer recreation, water sports, and effective fish-farming.
The Mohelno run-off-river hydroelectric power station, with its two turbine sets exceeding capacity of 1.2 MW and 0.6 MW, forms an inherent part of the Dalešice waterworks. The Mohelno reservoir with 17.1 million m3 of water balances the runoff from the Dalešice pumped-storage hydroelectric power station, and also serves as its lower basin for pumping. It provides cooling water for the Dukovany Nuclear Power Station, and also dilutes its waste water. The Mohelno Hydroelectric Power Station was built simultaneously with the Dalešice Pumped-Storage Hydroelectric Power Station.
Obřiství hydropower plant was built near the Labe weir, 4 km above the junction of the Labe and Vltava rivers. It was put into operation in 1995. It became the first really modern low-head power plant in the Czech territory. Its technology was designed and realized by the Austrian conglomerate firms J. M. Voith AG and AEG Austria GmbH.
The Orlík Hydroelectric Power Station forms a fundamental part of the Vltava Cascade. The water reservoir, holding 720 million m2 of water, is the largest retention reservoir in the Czech Republic, and, together with the Lipno reservoir, it is crucial for the long-term water flow regulation of the Vltava River and the lower course of the Labe River. Its water surface covers an area of 26 km2; it raises the Vltava level for 70 km, the Otava level for 22 km, and the Lužnice level for 7 km from its confluence with the Vltava River.
Pardubice hydropower plant was the first plant with a large horizontal turbo-generating set designed and built in the then CSSR and put into operation in 1978. There is a Kaplan bent turbine with a fixed guide wheel and an action wheel with the diameter of 3.6 m. Uncommonly, the turbine uses its overspeed device as operational. There is an outdoor type of HV distribution point.
The small hydropower plant Pastviny was put into operation in 1933. Originally it operated as a pumped-storage hydropower plant and held a few records at that time. At the time of its construction, it was the largest pumped-storage hydropower plant and it was the first power plant in the former Czechoslovakia where the machinery was not protected inside the building (it was in the open-air, it was a power plant of so called Swedist type).
Práčov Hydropower Plant, located in the heart of Železné hory, was one of the first hydro technology projects built in our country after the Second World War. In was put into operation in 1953. It stretched across six cadastral communities. Water is conveyed from Krizanovice reservoir on the Chrudinka river in an underground feeder canal which empties into an equalizing water tower with a steel upstream waterway leading to the plant.
The plant was built on the Labe river and put into operation after the Second World War, in 1953. Its technical twin is Smirice Hydropower Plant located 7 km up the river. After twenty years, Předměřice Hydropower Plant replaced a hydropower plant originally situated, together with the weir, about 200 m up the Labe river and ruined by high water in 1932.
The small hydropower plant Přelouč, which was put into operation in 1924, operates as a run-of-river hydropower plant on the 116th km of the Labe river. The plant was equipped with four vertical Francis turbines from the firm Josef Prokop & synove (and sons) – Pardubice. Two turbo-generators with the original turbines are still in operation, but two of the Francis turbo-generating sets were replaced by vertical sets with Kaplan turbines with the output of 677 kW in 2003.
The Slapy Hydroelectric Power Station was the first large project of the Vltava Cascade after the World War II. A 65 m high concrete gravity dam was built, forming an artificial lake that contains 270 million m3 of water, covers 14 km2, and is 44 km long, reaching as far as the stilling basin of the Kamýk hydroelectric power station. In addition to power engineering significance, the large retention reservoir assists the regulation of the Vltava River’s water regime. The area is also favoured for summer recreation by inhabitants of the capital Prague.
Spálov Hydropower Plant was built on the Jizera river and put into operation in 1921. Water is conveyed from a gate system near Bitouchov weir through a 1.32 km long tunnel and a 0.55 km long covered mountainside canal into an equalizing water basin with machine-cleaned racks, and through a 0.06 km long steel feeder canal into the plant. The generator rooms were fitted with two identical symmetric turbo-generators consisting of horizontal Francis turbines with the installed capacity of 2 MW. In March 1998, Spalov Hydropower Plant underwent comprehensive modernization.
Pursuit of achieving maximum utilization of the Morava river´s flow through Spytihněv Hydropower Plant led to fitting two turbo-generating sets in the plant. The technical conception of the plant, which was put into operation in 1951, was a product of the general social atmosphere after the year 1948. Although the creation of the grid connection in the republic was on the rise, Spytihněv Hydropower Plant was probably designed against another possible war conflict in Europe and a possible threat to electricity supplies to citizens from the connected energy system; for so called start “from the dark“.
The Štěchovice I Hydroelectric Power Station was originally built as the second stage of the Vltava Cascade at the end of the World War II. The water reservoir of this medium-head hydroelectric power station is 9.4 km long and reaches as far as the stilling basin of the Slapy hydroelectric power station. Its capacity is 11.2 million m3 of water, and its predominant purpose is to balance the fluctuating runoff from the peak-load hydroelectric power station at Slapy.
The Vrané Hydroelectric Power Station forms the last stage of the Vltava Cascade. It commenced operation as the first large hydroelectric power station on the Vltava River back in 1936. Its reservoir, holding 11.1 million m3 of water, stretches for 12 km of the Vltava River and 3 km of the Sázava River. Together with the Štěchovice water reservoir, it balances the peak-load runoff from the Slapy hydroelectric power station. Its operation is remotely controlled from the control centre at Štěchovice to guarantee a long-term balanced runoff from the entire cascade.
The small hydropower plant Vydra is situated near the junction of the Vydra and Kremelna rivers between the villages Rejstejn and Srni in the Susice district. The upper Vydra river has a high fall and, for the most of the year, plenty of water. The power plant construction started in 1937. In 1939 it started to operate as a run-of-river power plant and the full operation started only after the storage reservoir was finished in January 1942. Water is conveyed from the historical Vchynicko-Tetov canal near Mechov in an underground supply canal into the storage reservoir with the capacity of 67, 000 m3 near the Sedlo settlement.
The organizational unit of the Tušimice Power Stations also includes the Želina small hydroelectric power station. It operated between 1908 and 1925, and it was restored to its former appearance in 1994. At present, it generates between 300 and 450 kW of electricity, depending on the rate of water flow. It is a remarkable architectural, technical and historical sight.