Company Profile: VA TECH VOEST MCE (incorporating Sulzer Hydro)

Tech Voest MCE is the hydropower sector of the Austrian Voest-Alpine Technologie AG (VA Tech). VA Tech emerged in the 1990s from the privatisation of the Austrian state-owned Voest-Alpine, a huge steel and engineering group which was at one time Austria’s largest firm. In 1985, Voest-Alpine suffered large losses after its trading company risked too much on the London oil market. The entire board of Voest-Alpine was forced to resign,² and the company was restructured to become part of the newly created state holding company, Austrian Industries (AI), a conglomeration of steel and oil companies.³ Fifteen thousand jobs were cut from the total of 100,000 at Voest-Alpine.⁴

Voest-Alpine ran into more controversy in February 1991 when 14 managers of Noricum, the weapons division of Voest-Alpine, were found guilty by an Austrian court for making illegal sales of weapons to Iran in 1984 and 1985, when Iran was at war with Iraq.⁵ The deal was worth $300 million, according to Peter Untereger, the former head of Noricum.⁶ The Noricum scandal led to the Austrian government discontinuing all weapons production in state-owned enterprises.⁷

A 1993 Austrian privatisation programme led to the formation of Voest-Alpine Technologie AG (VA Tech) and Voest-Alpine Stahl.⁸ VA Stahl inherited the steel-making activities of the old Voest-Alpine group.⁹

VA Tech’s shares were publicly offered in 1995.¹⁰ VA Tech generates 80% of its revenue from technological consulting, services and project management, and has sold off or closed down most of its industrial plants.¹¹ Described in the Financial Times as "one of Austria’s greatest industrial success stories",¹² VA Tech’s income doubled from 1992 to 1996, and the share price tripled between its initial public offering in 1995 and August 1997.¹³ In 1998, VA Tech’s turnover was approximately $3 billion with a staff of almost 18,000.¹⁴ VA Tech’s operations are divided into three groups with approximately equal sales: metallurgical engineering; energy and environment; and plant engineering and services.¹⁵

In 1998, VA Tech went through further restructuring, prompted by the financial crisis in South-East Asia and in the Russian business and financial markets. VA Tech bought the Rolls-Royce power transmission and distribution business and EZ Praha, the largest Czech electrotechnical plant builder.¹⁶ In 1999, Voest-Alpine Industienlagenbau (VAI, a fully-owned VA Tech subsidiary) bought Kvaerner Metals Equipment.¹⁷

VA Tech’s hydropower division is VA Tech Voest Machinery, Construction and Engineering, a fully-owned subsidiary of VA Tech. In 1999, all the companies in the VA Tech group adopted the prefix "VA Tech", because of "the positioning of VA Tech as [a] world brand," according to Katharina Binovec, a spokesperson for VA Tech.¹⁸ VA Tech Voest MCE was previously known as Voest-Alpine MCE.

In 1998, Voest-Alpine MCE employed about 6,000 people¹⁹ and had a turnover of approximately $800 million.²⁰ VA Tech Voest MCE manufactures turbines, penstocks, gates, valves, governors and other electro-mechanical equipment for hydropower plants. The company has supplied hydraulic turbines for over 2,000 contracts, with more than 60,000 MW installed capacity.²¹ The VA Tech Voest MCE group includes VA Tech Hydro Vevey (Switzerland), PT VA Tech Voest (Indonesia), VA Tech Bouvier (France), VA Tech Bouvier (Canada), VA Tech Vamec Hidro Energetica (Brazil), and VA Tech Voest MCE Corp (USA). In 1992, Voest-Alpine MCE entered into a "strategic cooperation" with General Electric Hydro Canada.

Sulzer Hydro and VA Tech

In October 1999, VA Tech and Sulzer AG of Switzerland signed an agreement under which VA Tech is to acquire the entire operations of Sulzer Hydro. Sulzer Hydro is one of the largest international suppliers of mechanical hydropower plant equipment and, in 1998, the company’s sales were approximately $220 million. Sulzer Hydro employs 1,650 people and has manufacturing plants and sales offices in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, North America, Mexico, Peru, India and China.²² Sulzer Hydro has installed 16,000 turbines worldwide. The new company will operate under the name VA Tech Escher Wyss.²³ If the deal is approved, the merged company will be the world’s second biggest maker of hydro-electric power plants.²⁴

SULZER HYDRO AND DAMS

ILISU, TURKEY

The Turkish Ministry of Energy chose Sulzer Hydro as the lead in a consortium to build the Ilisu dam. Sulzer will supply the generating equipment along with another Swiss company, ABB Power Generation. The Union Bank of Switzerland is arranging finance, and the Swiss government’s export credit agency, Exportriskogarantie, is coordinating export credits and investment insurance guarantees. Exportriskogarantie has already approved an ECA-backed guarantee of 470 million Swiss francs to Sulzer and ABB for the equipment contract. Sulzer has commissioned the environmental impact study for the controversial project, a study which to date has been denied all attempts for public scrutiny [see box on Ilisu].

NATHPA JHAKRI, INDIA

A consortium called EUCONA, led by ABB and including Sulzer Hydro, won a $41.3 million contract to supply turbines to the 1,500MW Nathpa Jhakri dam on the Satluj river in northern India. After 13 years getting the various clearances and approvals, it was discovered in 1994 that the level of the bottom of the dam wall was two metres below the figure given. The local State Electricity Board further miscalculated the height of the dam by another two metres. As a result, the dam will be able to generate its peak output continuously for only about half the time anticipated, thereby failing to meet peak demand in the region [see box on Nathpa Jhakri].

THREE GORGES, CHINA

Sulzer Escher-Wyss is, together with ABB, recipient of a 211 million Swiss franc guarantee by the Swiss government for equipment each company will supply to the Three Gorges dam in China. The reservoir behind the proposed Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River would drown 13 cities, 1,711 villages, 116 towns and 1,600 factories. A minimum of 1.3 million people (latest estimates put the figure at 1.9 million) will be forced to leave. The dam is expected to cost at least $43 billion – some unofficial estimates put the figure at $75 billion – and would create a reservoir 400 miles long [see box on Three Gorges].

VA TECH AND DAMS

VA Tech Voest MCE and its associated companies have supplied the mechanical equipment for numerous dams the world over. Between 1990 and 1995, the company supplied 80% of all hydromechanical equipment in Indonesia. Voest-Alpine has supplied hydraulic steel components and/or penstocks for almost every hydropower dam in Pakistan since 1993, including the bifurcator for the Tarbela dam – the world’s largest bifurcator at over 13 metres in diameter. Many of the dams in which the company has been involved are renown for the adverse social and environment impacts, including the Pangue dam (Chile), the Ertan dam (China), the Urra dam (Colombia), the Akosombo dam (Ghana), the Ghazi Barotha dam (Pakistan), the Tarbela dam (Pakistan) and the Caruachi dam (Venezuela).

PANGUE, CHILE

Voest-Alpine MCE supplied hydromechanical equipment to the Pangue dam,²⁵ the first of a six-dam cascade on the Biobio river in Chile. The indigenous Pehuenche people were not consulted before the Pangue project was started and the plans and financing agreements already made. An independent anthropologist found that the Pehuenche people’s human and constitutional rights had been violated, but the World Bank’s IFC, which funded the dam, refused to release the report. Since its completion in September 1996, Pangue has produced only a fraction of its expected output because of low rainfall in the south of Chile [see box on Biobio dams].

SAN ROQUE, THE PHILIPPINES

In 1999, VA Tech Voest MCE was awarded the contract for the design, manufacture, supply and installation of 3,200 tons of steel liners for the San Roque dam, following the 1998 contracts VA Tech Voest MCE won for the dam.²⁶

The 345 MW San Roque dam is planned for the Agno river in the Cordillera region of the Philippines. The hydropower and irrigation project is the last in a series of three dams on the Agno river which, over 45 years, have severely disrupted the lives, economy and environment of the region’s Ibaloi people. The dam is opposed by thousands of Ibaloi people. Over 925 families would be displaced, and tens of thousands living downstream would face impacts to their livelihoods due to erosion and the destruction of fisheries.

In July 1999, the US-based NGO International Rivers Network coordinated an independent review of the Environmental Impact Assessment (carried out in 1984 by Test Consultants, and updated in 1997 by Pirnie/HEC International). The review found that the reservoir could fill with sediment much faster than the EIA predicts; the accumulation of toxic sediments could poison the water in the reservoir; and the dam could trigger earthquakes and worsen the flooding of the Agno river.²⁷

One hundred and sixty families were evicted in 1998 after their homes were bulldozed to make way for the project. They have since spent more than a year in a temporary resettlement site waiting for the Philippine National Power Corporation to complete the permanent site. The resettlement areas offer no suitable farmland, no school and no health clinics.²⁸ No compensation has been offered for farmlands, crops, plants or trees from the proposed reservoir area.

JEXIM, the Japanese export credit agency, is currently supporting the project and has already approved a $302 million loan for the San Roque Power Corporation – a joint venture between Marubeni, Kansai Electric (both Japanese companies) and Sithe Energies (a US company) – and is considering a further $400 million of support. Although environmental and social impact assessments have been undertaken for the project, JEXIM has refused to make them available to those affected by the project or to NGOs in Japan^.29

Recent changes to Philippine law have recognised the right of local communities and indigenous peoples to veto destructive projects. Yet according to opponents of the dam, local opinion has not only been ignored but cynically misrepresented. Filipino authorities, for example, told JEXIM that the project had the necessary local support, despite affected communities being strongly opposed.

Local indigenous groups accuse the government and the companies of using patronage and the promise of future government development grants for the area to engineer the region’s municipal authority into consenting to the project. Although the Itogon Municipal Council at first opposed the dam, it is now split on the issue, following a visit by the then President of the Philippines, Fidel V. Ramos, and officials from Marubeni. In a statement condemning the Council, the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance charges:

"In order to protect their personal interests as bureaucrats and traditional politicians, the Municipal Council has succumbed to the bribery of the national government in the amount of Peso 50 million in infrastructure projects. This they have done in [betrayal of] the basic rights of their constituency, whose lives, land and livelihood are now endangered by the dam project. The Council has reduced the issue to money matters as if this were the only way to govern. This is an outright misrepresentation of the peoples’ interests."³⁰

Lorenzo Demot of the Council of Elders of the Shalupirip Santahnay Indigenous Peoples’ Movement also points out that claims of support for the dam amongst those who will be resettled are highly misleading. Most residents in the area, he claims, are tenants who are afraid to voice their opposition publicly because they do not own the land they are tilling and living on. In many cases, their landowners support the project or have agreed to sell their land to the company.

JEXIM has merged with Japan’s bilateral aid agency, the Overseas Economic Co-Operation Fund (OECF), to form a new institution. This institution will be the world’s largest single source of public financing for infrastructure projects and other investments in low-income countries, dwarfing even the World Bank. The Ibaloi are seeking international support for their struggle against the dam. "We are determined to fight against the project to the limit of our capacity", says a statement issued in September 1998. "We will not be a party to our own death."

ERTAN, CHINA

VA Tech Hydro Vevey supplied governors for the 3,300 MW Ertan hydropower dam.³¹ The work is part of a $776 million contract won by Impregilo of Italy to build the dam along the Yalong river, a tributary of the Yangtze river in Sichuan province. Impregilo leads the Ertan Joint Venture, which also includes Torno (Italy), Dumez (France), GTM (France), Holzmann (Germany), Hochtief (Germany) and Changian Gezhouba Engineering Bureau 8B (China).³² The implementing agency is the Ertan Hydroelectric Development Corporation (EHDC) [See section on Impregilo for further information on Ertan].

BHUMIPHOL, THAILAND

Located on the Ping river in north-west Thailand, the World Bank-funded Bhumiphol dam was first commissioned in 1964 with a capacity of 140 MW. Subsequently more turbines have been added to upgrade the capacity to 535 MW. By 1990, the original turbines were worn out, and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) awarded three separate renovation contracts to VA Tech Voest MCE for all six turbines.³³ The last two renovated turbines are due to be commissioned in January 2001.³⁴ The 30,000 hectare reservoir behind the dam is the second largest in Thailand, and led to the forced eviction of 20,000 people. The dam has never operated to its full capacity. In March 1994, the reservoirs behind the Bhumiphol and Sirikit (both World Bank-funded) dams contained only 7% of their total usable volume. EGAT’s answer is to propose yet more dams on the Salween river, on the Thai-Burma border so as to divert water into the Bhumiphol reservoir [see sections on Kvaerner and ABB].

URRA I, COLOMBIA

In 1997, Voest-Alpine MCE won an order from Skanska, the main contractors, to design, supply, install and commission intake/outlet steel linings and gates for the Urra I dam on the Rio Sinu in the State of Cordoba³⁵ [see section on Skanska].

CIRATA, INDONESIA

Completed in 1998, VA Tech Voest MCE designed, manufactured and installed four Francis turbines and other hydromechanical equipment. The Cirata dam is Indonesia’s largest hydropower plant.

VA Tech and the World Commission on Dams

According to Katharina Binovec, a spokesperson for VA Tech, the company is, "as far as we know, not" involved in the World Commission on Dams. In response to questions regarding whether VA Tech sees the WCD as a constructive process, she replied, "cannot say as we don’t know."³⁶

VA TECH, SULZER: DAMS AT A GLANCE

AUSTRIA

Voest-Alpine MCE supplied Pelton turbines for the Ausserfragent dam in the south of Austria. In September 1997, Bouvier SA (the French subsidiary of Voest-Alpine MCE) won a contract for the design and installation of the turbine and other electro-mechanical equipment for the 671 kW Gosslitzbach dam. Voest-Alpine MCE supplied Pelton turbines for the 42.8 MW Oschenik dam in the south of Austria.

Seesperre-Plansee dam. The Plansee lake has been dammed since 1903, and regulation of the lake was done by outlet gates. In December 1997, Voest-Alpine MCE with Bouvier Hydro won the contract to design, supply and install a 1 MW pit turbine to replace the gates.

VA Tech Bouvier Hydro won the contract to replace the turbines in the 1.7 MW Strechenbach dam, built in 1908, and supplied new runners for the existing Pelton turbines at the Uttendorf dam, a 30 MW dam in the Stubach Valley, completed in 1950.

BANGLADESH

In 1998, a consortium of ABB SAE Sadelmi (Milan) and Voest-Alpine MCE completed the refurbishment and upgrading of the first two generating sets (from 41 to 47 MW) of the Karnafuli dam in the south-east of Bangladesh. ABB and Voest-Alpine manufactured and supplied the original electromechanical equipment for the dam.

BHUTAN

Voest-Alpine supplied two Pelton turbines, the 1.3 km-long penstock and other equipment for the 23.8 MW Basochhu dam in Wangdi Phodrang province. The dam was funded by the Austrian government, and was due to be completed in 1999.

BOSNIA

The Jablanica dam on the Neretva river, 80kms south-west of Sarajevo, was completed in 1958. Hydro Vevey modernised the governing system in the early 1970s, and in 1998 Hydro Vevey supplied a new turbine for the Swiss government- and World Bank-funded modernisation of the 33 MW dam.

BRAZIL

In May 1998, Vamec Hidro Energetica (the Brazilian subsidiary of Voest-Alpine MCE) announced it had won the contract for the supply and engineering of the 1.5 km-long penstock for the 6 MW Ervalia dam. In December 1997, Vamec Hidro Energetica was awarded a $2 million order for the rehabilitation of two Kaplan turbines at the Salto Grande dam. In November 1998, Vamec Hidro Energetica announced it had won the $5 million contract for the electromechanical equipment. VA Tech Bouvier Hydro will engineer the four "S" type turbines for the 5.2 MW Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira dam.

CANADA

VA Tech Bouvier Canada supplied $3 million worth of electromechanical equipment for the 5 MW Batawa 4 dam on the Trent Severn Waterway near Trenton, Ontario.

CAMEROON

Only a few years after completion in 1988, the concrete structure of the 384 MW Song Loulou dam and powerhouse started to crack, resulting in damage to the turbines and requiring costly repairs. Hydro Quebec of Canada won a $1 million contract, funded by the state utility Societe Nationale d’Electricite du Cameroun (SONEL) to investigate the problems with the Song Loulou dam. One turbine was repaired with funding from the Cameroon government, and the Swiss government granted $5 million for the rehabilitation of the remaining seven turbines. VA Tech Hydro Vevey (the Swiss subsidiary of VA Tech Voest MCE) won the contract.

CHILE

VA Tech Hydro Vevey supplied one 39.5 MW Francis turbine to the Loma Alta dam. Voest-Alpine MCE Chile was the main contractor and manufactured and installed the penstock for the Rucue dam.

COSTA RICA

Voest-Alpine MCE supplied turbines for the 132 MW Angostura dam, the largest power station in Costa Rica. The dam was partly funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. Bouvier Hydro supplied two Francis turbines, generators and valves for the 11 MW Rio Lajas dam.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Voest-Alpine MCE supplied two pit turbines and other hydromechanical equipment for the Libcice dam, commissioned in January 1998.

FRANCE

Bouvier Hydro was responsible for the inclined shaft design for the 2.3 MW Capdenac dam on the Lot river in the south-west of France, due to be commission in 1999. In February 1998, a consortium of Bouvier Hydro and Fournie-Grospaud signed a contract to supply, install and commission all electromechanical facilities for the Pierre-Benite dam on the Rhone. In December 1998, VA Tech Bouvier Hydro signed a contract with Electicite de France to supply equipment for repairs to the Valliere power plant.

GERMANY

In February 1998, Voest-Alpine MCE and Bouvier Hydro won contracts to supply "S" type turbines for the 569 kW Antonstahl and the 177 kW Schonheide dams in Saxony. Voest-Alpine MCE supplied pressure shaft lining and hydraulic steel structures for the 1,060 MW Goldisthal dam, in Thuringen. Due to be completed in 2002-3, Goldisthal is Germany’s largest pumped storage power station and is estimated to cost $530 million. The total value of the VA Tech group’s contracts for the project is approximately $44 million. Lahmeyer International also worked on the Godisthal dam.

In September 1997, Voest-Alpine MCE won the contract for design, supply, installation and commissioning of the "S" type turbine and generator equipment for the 310 kW Linden dam in Bavaria, and VA Tech Voest MCE won the contract to renew three Francis turbines at the Toging dam in Bavaria. Siemens’ Brazilian subsidiary supplied generators.

GHANA

In September 1998, a consortium of Voest-Alpine MCE and GE Hydro Canada won the $11 million contract to refurbish the six Francis turbines of the 912 MW Akosombo dam, which were commissioned between 1965 and 1972. The Impregilo Group originally constructed the dam [see Introduction "Hydropower – Into the Future" and Impregilo section for further information on Akosombo].

GREECE

Commission in 1990, the 115 MW Pigai dam is on the Aoos river in north-west Greece. In 1986, Voest-Alpine won the contract for the design and supply of the electromechanical equipment. Compo-nents were manufactured jointly in Voest-Alpine’s Vevey workshop and by Metka in Athens. The 128 MW Thissavros dam was built on the Nestos river between 1991 and 1997. Equipment for the dam was designed and supplied by a consortium consisting of Metka, Cegelec, Alstom and Hydro Vevey.

GUATAMALA

Voest-Alpine MCE supplied turbines and other hydromechanical services for the 15.9 MW Secacao dam. VA Tech PSG organised the financial package for the dam’s construction.

INDIA

In early 1997, GE Hydro awarded Hydro Vevey the contract for design and supply of electromechanical equipment for the extension of the existing Kuttiyadi dam.

INDONESIA

VA Tech Voest MCE supplied electromechanical equipment for the following dams: Cirata (1000 MW), Besai (92 MW), Singkarak (220 MW) Tulungagung (38 MW) and Balanbano. In May 1997, Voest-Alpine MCE signed a contract for the supply of hydraulic steel structures for the Balambano hydroelectric plant, on the Larona river, Sulawesi. In January 1996, a consortium of GE Canada, Elin Energieversorgung and Voest-Alpine won the contract to supply electromechanical equipment to the dam. The electricity from the plant will be used for the extension of an existing nickel mine.

Completed in 1998, VA Tech Voest MCE designed, manufactured and installed four Francis turbines and other hydromechanical equipment for the Cirata dam, which powers Indonesia’s largest hydropower plant [See main text].

IRAN

Voest-Alpine won the $145 million contract to supply hydromechanical equipment for the 2,000 MW Karun-3 dam. An ABB-led consortium won the $1.25 billion contract to build the dam.

JAPAN

In June 1997, Voest-Alpine MCE commissioned two Francis turbines for the 8.6 MW Satsunaigawa dam on the island of Hokkaido. The turbines were designed and manufactured by Bouvier Hydro.

MALAYSIA

In 1995, Voest-Alpine and Elin Energieversorgung formed a consortium with the government of Perak State to refurbish the Chenderoh dam. The contract is worth $40 million.

NAMIBIA

Voest-Alpine MCE supplied equipment for the modernisation of the 240 MW Ruacana dam.

NIGERIA

Voest-Alpine supplied Kaplan turbines to the Kainji dam in 1972. Impregilo constructed the dam [See section on Impreglio].

PAKISTAN

In 1993, Voest-Alpine supplied the bifurcator for the Tarbela dam – the world’s largest bifurcator at over 13m in diameter. In late 1998, VA Tech Voest MCE won a $14 million contract to supply and install five 225 metre-long penstocks for the 1,500 MW Ghazi Barotha dam on the Indus River. Voith won the contract to supply and install turbines [See Impregilo section for more information on the Tarbela and Ghazi Barotha dams].

PERU

In May 1997, Bouvier Hydro signed a contract for the supply of the complete electromechanical package for the 5.5 MW Monobamba II dam in Chanchamayo province.

PHILIPPINES

Located on the Magat river, the 370 MW Magat dam was designed to irrigate 100,000 ha. Built in 1983, Voest-Alpine supplied four Francis turbines and other hydromechanical equipment. In 1998, Voest-Alpine MCE upgraded the governor system with digital technology.

EL SALVADOR

In April 1999 a consortium of VA Tech Elin and VA Tech Hydro Vevey won the contract for the rehabilitation of five Francis turbines for the 84 MW 5 de Noviembre dam, described by Voest as the first large rehabilitation in Central America.

SLOVAKIA

In late 1998, VA Tech Voest MCE won the order to rehabilitate two Kaplan turbines at the Ladce dam. "The order was received by ABB Energie AG Vienna based on a consortium agreement." The first Kaplan turbine of the 38.1 MW Zilina dam on the Zah river was completed in December 1997. Voest-Alpine MCE supplied turbines and other hydromechanical equipment. A consortium of ABB SAE Sadelmi (Milan), ABB Energie (Vienna) and Voest-Alpine MCE (Linz) carried out the hydromechanical works.

SOUTH AFRICA

Voest-Alpine installed new digital speed governors at the 1,000 MW pump storage Drakensberg dam.

SPAIN

In November 1997, Hydro Vevey won the contract for the renovation of the speed governing systems of the 290 MW Saucelle 1 power plant in Salamanca. VA Tech Hydro Vevey designed and manufactured pump turbines and valves for the 85 MW Soutelo dam. VA Tech Voest MCE supplied other equipment. The company also designed and supplied pump turbines for the 34 MW Valparaiso dam, commissioned in 1988. The Valparaiso dam is one of three dams on the Rio Tera in northern Spain. In 1998 Hydro Vevey won a contract as part of the rehabilitation of the 10.2 MW Zorita dam.

SUDAN

In 1999, the National Electricity Corporation of Sudan signed a $9 million contract with VA Tech Voest MCE for the rehabilitation of three Kaplan turbines in the 44 MW Roseires hydropower plant on the Blue Nile, 500 kms south of Khartoum. Completion is scheduled for October 2001. Impregilo was involved with building the Roseires dam.

SWITZERLAND

Va Tech Hydro Vevey supplied three Pelton turbines to the Amsteg dam, and in December 1998, a consortium of VA Tech Hydro Vevey and ABB won the contract to supply turbines for the rehabilitation of the 10 MW Aubonne dam, built in 1896.

Design and supply for the 1,250 MW Bieudron dam was carried out by a consortium including Sulzer Hydro and VA Tech Hydro Vevey. The first two units were commissioned in Autumn 1998. VA Tech Hydro Vevey won the contract to renovate the turbine at the 32 MW Croix dam in the Valais, Switzerland. In December 1997, Hydro Vevey won the contract to overhaul the Kaplan turbines at the 3.1 MW La Goule dam. VA Tech Hydro Vevey also worked on the modernisation of the Lavey dam. In 1989, Hydro Vevey won the order to supply a Pelton turbine from the electricity company of the state of Fribourg for the 3.2 MW Ste-Ann dam.

TURKEY

In March 1999, VA Tech Elin led a consortium that signed a contract to manufacture and supply steel structure equipment, penstocks and cranes for the 300 MW Borka dam on the Coruh river near the border with Georgia. Other members of the consortium are VA Tech Voest MCE, Verbundplan (Austria), Strabag (Austria), Voith Hydro (Germany), Temelsu (Turkey) and Yuksel (Turkey). The consortium will build both the Muratli (see below) and Borcka dams on the Coruh river. Societe Generale, Nissho Iwai, ABN Anro, Erste bank and RZB are funding both dams, with KfW the joint lead arranger. The total project cost is $600 million and includes two export credits and seven commercial loans.

VA Tech Hydro Vevey is part of the consortium (with ABB and Sulzer Hydro) supplying electromechanical equipment for the 680 MW Deriner dam. VA Tech Voest MCE are also supplying equipment for the dam. The financing of the $700 million project involves an export credit facility covered by the Swiss and Austrian export credit agencies, and a $315 million loan from the Swiss Bank Corporation. ABB Structured Finance acted as co-arranger with Swiss Bank Corporation on one of the loan facilities. The Deriner dam is the fifth biggest concrete dam in the world. Turkey’s president Suleyman Demirel laid the foundation of the dam on 26 April 1998. The dam is located on the Coruh river in the east of Turkey, upstream of the Borcka and Muratli dams. The Coruh river flows into the Black Sea.

In June 1997, Bouvier Hydro signed the contract for the supply of the electromechanical works for the 16.5 MW Fethiye dam. VA Tech PSG was involved with financing the contract. Voest-Alpine supplied Francis turbines, installed in two stages in 1967 and 1976, for the 1,400 MW Keban dam. In March 1999, VA Tech Voest Alpine signed the contract to manufacture and supply structural steelwork, turbines, valves and governors for the 115 MW Muratli dam. The Muratli dam is the most downstream of a proposed cascade of 11 dams on the Curah river. In June 1998, a consortium of VA Tech Voest MCE and VA Tech Bouvier Hydro won the contract to supply and install two "S" type turbines and other hydromechanical equipment for the 9.4 MW Sucati dam. Siemens AG Austria is the main contractor for electrical-mechanical equipment for the power plant.

VA Tech Bouvier Hydro also supplied Francis turbines, generators, valves and instruments for the 14.2 MW Tohma dam, in the south-east of Turkey.

USA

In 1992, VA Tech Voest MCE was awarded the contract to renovate the turbine and other equipment on the 64.4 MW Cabinet Gorge dam on the Clark Fork river, Idaho. In July 1999, VA Tech Voest MCE announced that it had won the $40 million contract for the renewal of the 18 Francis turbines for the 2,520 MW Grand Coulee dam in a consortium with GE Hydro (Canada). Completion of the last unit is scheduled for 2007. Siemens won the contract for the generator refurbishment. Construction on the Grand Coulee dam began in 1937. When completed in 1941, the dam was the world’s largest masonry structure, and the world’s highest capacity hydropower installation.

VA Tech Voest MCE Corp. won the contract to supply three new Francis turbine runners for the 140 MW Hyatt dam in California and Voest-Alpine supplied Kaplan turbines for the John Day dam on the Columbia river, Oregon. In August 1998, the Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago awarded Voest-Alpine MCE the order to rehabilitate the 13.5 MW Lockport power plant, built in 1907 and rehabilitated in 1936.

The US Army Corps of Engineers awarded a consortium of Voest-Alpine MCE and GE Hydro Canada an order for the rehabilitation of Kaplan turbines at the 45 MW Jim Woodruff dam. The order is valued at approximately $4 million and is due to be completed in 2002.

VENEZUELA

Voest-Alpine MCE was responsible for the radial gates and hydraulic equipment for the 2,100 MW Caruachi dam. The contract is worth $12 million and is due to be completed in the year 2000. Impregilo was involved in the preliminary works for the dam [See Impregilo section for further information on the Caruachi dam]. In 1991-92, Voest-Alpine MCE was involved in the Macagua dam.