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Flender Water Power In Northern Ireland

Belfast based second tier supply company Energia is benefiting from renewable electricity supplied by Harperstown Power, with the help of a Flender FZG geared water turbine.

Harperstown Power has redeveloped its water power plant at Hillmount, which dates back to the 18th century. The site had been used to process cloth, where water was the essential ingredient for power and for processing. In the 18th century, two weirs on the River Maine supplied water to five large water wheels, but between 1881 and 1912 three of these were replaced by new Francis water turbines made by John MacDonald of Glasgow. With the development of electricity after World War 1, by 1928 all the turbines had been connected to DC generators to replace line shafting, and a fourth turbine had also been installed. From then up until 1994 these four turbines ran in parallel with a DC generator driven by a 370 hp WH Allen steam engine.

The textile industry saw a steady decline during the 1980's, but the Government's interest in renewable energy and its announcement of NI-NFFO (Northern Ireland Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation) in 1993, gave the prospect of a new life for these machines.

At Hillmount, the thrust bearing arrangement on the 39" MacDonald turbine of 1909 was redesigned and coupled to an 80kW synchronous generator and an equivalent ballast load with control panel. This worked so well that last year Harperstown Power rebuilt the 1912 MacDonald turbine, coupling it to a 55kW synchronous generator with ballast load and control panel.

Flender's B2SV5 helical gear unit is one of two turbines that supply electricity to the mill and to Energia in Belfast. The other two turbines supply power that goes straight into the National Grid. Between them the turbines produce around 1.6GWh of electricity per year, of which 25% is used on site, 12% goes to the second tier supply company, and 63% is sold to Northern Ireland Electricity plc under a NFFO contract.

Harperstown Power's managing director Andrew Frazer, who is also a member of the Hydro-Power Association, and whose family has owned the site for 130 years, is delighted with the performance of the Flender unit, although at the time of writing he was hoping for a change in the weather: "It's running up to 24 hours a day and all we need now is more rain! We've had almost six months without heavy rainfall and obviously need water to maximise our output."

The Flender B2SV5 bevel helical gear unit has a ratio of 10.023/1, and a rated power of 132kW (service factor 2.2 based on turbine power).

It is supplied with an A160 NEUPEX flexible coupling on high-speed shaft and a ZINV size 3 ZAPEX gear type coupling in vertical design on low-speed shaft.