hydro
From a Drop of Water
DELICATE drops of water in the rainforest, sliding from the leaf; a hesitant, translucent trickle, creeping through the undergrowth, mingling with a small stream.
The streams gather and gradually widens, and several miles later flows in to the tunnels leading into a lake. The lake surface is placid, ruffled only occasionally by the breeze. It is the picture of serenity.
There is something deceptive here though, something more important than the beauty of the scene.
This enormous volume of liquid – 133 million cubic meters – bearing down on the land, is the concentration of force waiting to be released. In the depths, away from the calmness and the sunlight, there is movement. The latent power begins its first stirrings. The cold, dark water is pulled by a current into another tunnel where it moves, slowly at first, to a destination five kilometres away.
It surges onwards, with smooth heavy strength, until it reaches the generating station in the valley below.
At that point, its speed has reached 340 kms per hour. The water smashes into the station’s turbines at the pressure of 850 lbs per square inch – enough to bend a quarter inch thick piece of steel.
The giant turbine, specially hardened to withstand this awesome strength, spin at 750 revolutions a minute, and create energy to generate an electric current.
The gentle drop of water from the leaf in the forest has been transformed; the innocent stream becomes a roaring, frightening juggernaut; hydro power thunders forth and electricity surges through the transmission lines.
The Monasavu Story
The HYDRO scheme is designed to reduce the country's reliance on imported diesel fuel used for generating electricity, and to spearhead further development plans.The Fiji Electricity Authority approved the Monasavu scheme in 1977 and construction began in May 1978.
It was financed by overseas and local funds and government grants, a multi million dollar project which remains the most ambitious development scheme undertaken in Fiji. Armed with a fleet of earth moving machines, tunnelling devices and international expertise, a workforce of about 1500 men set about carving out the scheme from virgin bush. For many of those men, it would mean working in condition far cooler-and wetter- than anything they had encountered before.
The theory behind hydro-electricity is quite simple: water under high pressure turns the turbines, rather than diesel-fuelled generators. But if the theory is simple, the mechanics of building a dam and a series of tunnels is not. The turbines at Wailoa Power House, 625meters lower than the lake, are capable of producing about 80mw of energy.
Facilities of transmission of power from Wailoa to Vuda and Suva also had to be set up-a Trans Viti Levu link across the very centre of the island.
Wailoa Basin Hydropower
The Wailoa Basin Hydropower Master plan is a project aimed at identifying and maximising the potential for energy from hydropower projects based on the Wailoa river and its tributaries. Initial assessments on the extent of hydropower potential indicate a possibility of up to 400 GWh of viable hydro energy in the Wailoa Basin. Detailed concept study and analysis will be complete by October end.
Wailoa Additional Projects
Monasavu additional energy options have also been proposed to optimise on the existing Monasavu/Wailoa scheme. This includes improving energy production by increasing storage at Wainisavulevu weir, mini hydro station at the Monasavu outfall, maximising flow in the PP2 and PP3 intake structures.
DELICATE drops of water in the rainforest, sliding from the leaf; a hesitant, translucent trickle, creeping through the undergrowth, mingling with a small stream.
The streams gather and gradually widens, and several miles later flows in to the tunnels leading into a lake. The lake surface is placid, ruffled only occasionally by the breeze. It is the picture of serenity.
There is something deceptive here though, something more important than the beauty of the scene.
This enormous volume of liquid – 133 million cubic meters – bearing down on the land, is the concentration of force waiting to be released. In the depths, away from the calmness and the sunlight, there is movement. The latent power begins its first stirrings. The cold, dark water is pulled by a current into another tunnel where it moves, slowly at first, to a destination five kilometres away.
It surges onwards, with smooth heavy strength, until it reaches the generating station in the valley below.
At that point, its speed has reached 340 kms per hour. The water smashes into the station’s turbines at the pressure of 850 lbs per square inch – enough to bend a quarter inch thick piece of steel.
The giant turbine, specially hardened to withstand this awesome strength, spin at 750 revolutions a minute, and create energy to generate an electric current.
The gentle drop of water from the leaf in the forest has been transformed; the innocent stream becomes a roaring, frightening juggernaut; hydro power thunders forth and electricity surges through the transmission lines.
The Monasavu Story
The HYDRO scheme is designed to reduce the country's reliance on imported diesel fuel used for generating electricity, and to spearhead further development plans.The Fiji Electricity Authority approved the Monasavu scheme in 1977 and construction began in May 1978.
It was financed by overseas and local funds and government grants, a multi million dollar project which remains the most ambitious development scheme undertaken in Fiji. Armed with a fleet of earth moving machines, tunnelling devices and international expertise, a workforce of about 1500 men set about carving out the scheme from virgin bush. For many of those men, it would mean working in condition far cooler-and wetter- than anything they had encountered before.
The theory behind hydro-electricity is quite simple: water under high pressure turns the turbines, rather than diesel-fuelled generators. But if the theory is simple, the mechanics of building a dam and a series of tunnels is not. The turbines at Wailoa Power House, 625meters lower than the lake, are capable of producing about 80mw of energy.
Facilities of transmission of power from Wailoa to Vuda and Suva also had to be set up-a Trans Viti Levu link across the very centre of the island.
Wailoa Basin Hydropower
The Wailoa Basin Hydropower Master plan is a project aimed at identifying and maximising the potential for energy from hydropower projects based on the Wailoa river and its tributaries. Initial assessments on the extent of hydropower potential indicate a possibility of up to 400 GWh of viable hydro energy in the Wailoa Basin. Detailed concept study and analysis will be complete by October end.
Wailoa Additional Projects
Monasavu additional energy options have also been proposed to optimise on the existing Monasavu/Wailoa scheme. This includes improving energy production by increasing storage at Wainisavulevu weir, mini hydro station at the Monasavu outfall, maximising flow in the PP2 and PP3 intake structures.
