Energa Group RES power plants – Kolincz Hydroelectric Power Plant

Energa presents an overview of all renewable energy facilities under its management. Renewable energy sources are part of the Energa Group strategy for 2016-2025. Energa is a national leader in this field. At the beginning of 2020, more than 30% of the Company's production mix came from renewable sources.

Energa owns 46 hydroelectric power plants, five wind farms and two solar farms. The total capacity of these power plants is 444 MW. The Company continues to expand its onshore wind farms, invests in solar energy projects, and, as a long-term project, plans to build offshore wind farms. In April 2019, work was commenced on the construction of the 30 MW Przykona Wind Farm. Completion of the investment and obtaining of the operation permit are planned for Q2 2020.

The Kolincz hydroelectric power plant on the Wierzyca River was built in 1914 in place of the old watermill. The power plant was provided with two identical 400 kW Francis turbines from Voith which were arranged in series and have operated to this day without any major change to their design. The controller and the synchronous generator also date back to that period. The plant operates in the run-of-the-river mode with its power adjusted to the current hydrological conditions in the Wierzyca river basin.

The facility is equipped with modernized medium-voltage switchgear in which one historical cell with the original circuit breaker is left for the purposes of illustration and education. The equipment is complete, well maintained and in an excellent condition. Another technical curiosity is the original generator synchronization equipment using the “dark lamp method”. The optical signalling system uses a historical Philips lamp with a characteristic two-coil filament spiral.

Hydroelectric power plants are an important element in the electricity generation chain of the Energa Group. They are constantly upgraded and overhauled, which maintains their energy efficiency at a very high level.

Technical specifications:

Turbine: Kaplan type,
Generator: asynchronous Simens generator,
Speed governor: electrohydraulic,
Total installed discharge of the turbines Qinst. = 8 m3/s,
The effective head is H = 7m.
The catchment area of the plant is 1180 sq. km,
and the average multi-year flow Qavg = 5.66 m3/s.