Guiding in Jostedal hydropower plant

Location :

• Per Stobbe

  27 September 2016

  Our trip 2006 - 1200 meters inside the mountain and 90 meters down we stopped and had to leave our red Volvo with the keys in! After a little walk further into the center of the mountain we entered through a large door to the heart of Jostedal Powerplant. A single water turbine connected to a generator in a colossal great hall, almost a cathedral. Under the ceiling hung two cranes each with a lifting capacity of 250 tons. In the middle of the floor jutted an orange metal hat up. It was the top of the generator. There were further six floors down to the site of the single water turbine. A reserve turbine wheel stood out in the hall and impressed with its 4 meter diameter, 20 ton weight and completely polished stainless steel. Styggevatnet lake has an inlet valve connected through a 40 km long carved tunnel in the rock directly to an outlet valve at the power plant. Since the lake is situated in 1110-1200 meters and power plant in 40 meter over sea level water pressure astonishing 115 Bar. Flow from the 1 meter diameter outlet are controlled by a tremendously large 1 meter diameter ball valve. From here the water enters though 5 jets that send water in 15 cm thick beams towards the Pelton impeller which delivers stunning 0.4 million horsepower the generator running at 485 rpm generating 288 MW electrical power. The Jostedal power plant is able every day to consume as much as 25 cm of water level from the lake equal to 28 m3 per second through the turbine. So there is less than 100 days of water in this colossal lake of 250 million cubic metres!

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