Voith Hydro has been awarded the contract to rehabilitate and upgrade the turbines in the 10-unit powerhouse at the 956 MW Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River in Washington state. Installation of the upgraded vertical Kaplan turbines, with a majority of the rehab work being performed at Voith's York, Pennsylvania facility, will span 10 years starting in 2016, with one unit upgraded per year. Voith performed extensive model testing over the past several years, culminating in a successful customer witness test in Lausanne, Switzerland in June 2013. Each turbine is rated at approximately 100 MW.
Cavitation free performance and stringent fish passage criteria were critical components for the final awarded design of the turbine. Voith recently completed the final turbine upgrade at the 10-unit Wanapum Dam, which is immediately upstream from Priest Rapids.
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