Wels, Austria-headquartered transport, lifting and civil engineering firm Felbermayr has delivered the second of two 140-tonne transformers for the Kühtai 2 pumped storage hydropower plant in Tyrol, Austria.
Kühtai 2 is being developed by Tiroler Wasserkraft – an Austrian company that generates electricity from hydropower – and is a key element in Austria’s planned energy transition. With a generating capacity of around 190 MW and a new reservoir located at an altitude of over 2,100 metres above sea-level, the plant will deliver flexible grid stabilisation and CO₂ savings of over 120,000 tonnes per year. Transporting the transformers to the construction site in high alpine terrain required a solution combining maximum flexibility with strong tractive power.
The transformer, which measured 7.25m in length, 3.54m in width and 4.29m in height, was carried by rail to Zirl. There it was transferred to a heavy-duty module combination comprising equipment from Goldhofer. Felbermayr opted for a 15-axle combination – with a six-axle self-propelled ADDRIVE and a two-axle FT SERIES module (THP/FT-L) up front, and a 3+4 combination from the same series at the back.
In between, a scissor lift bridge carried the transformer mounted on a turntable. A combination of tractor unit and pusher truck was used to handle the steep inclines on the mountain road.
According to Goldhofer, the flexibility and universal combination options of its FT SERIES was key to the success of the operation. “With projects of this complexity the ability to configure modules with maximum flexibility and even combine them with self-propelled transporters such as the ADDRIVE is a decisive advantage,” says Erwin Uebel, the Goldhofer service engineer who accompanied the transport. “The differences in height between the modules are not a problem; the »FT SERIES« is designed for maximum adaptability.”
Goldhofer says the ADDRIVE also came into its own: As a hybrid solution, it can be used both as a towed module and as a self-propelled vehicle. On the last few kilometres to the construction site, at an altitude of over 2,000 metres, the 55-metre-long combination had to overcome extreme gradients of over 16%. “On the steep sections, the extra power provided by the ADDRIVE was worth its weight in gold,” says Uebel. “The combination of tractor assistance and towed module within the overall train makes it the ideal solution for challenging terrain.”
Towards the end of the journey narrow tunnels and a confined approach to the cavern required the millimetre precision offered by the module combination in order to safely deliver the heavy load to the required position.
