The Mulungushi Power Station- Africa's oldest hydropower facility will soon install a large diameter fixed cone valve from Orbinox.
The AVK Group takes great pride in its extensive history, which includes Glenfield Valves in Scotland. With its first project taking place in South Africa more than 120 years ago, Glenfield has been providing valves for hydropower projects since 1900.
Building on this history, we were contacted in September 2022 with a project at the Mulungushi Power Station by WestGlen Consult (Scotland) and Scatec (Norway), who were consulting for Lunsemfwa Hydro Power Company (LHPC), Zambia's first independent power producer.
Located near Kabwe in Central Province, Zambia, the Mulungushi Power Station is the oldest hydropower plant in South Africa. It was formally opened in 1925 and is fast approaching its centenary. The project site is the dam for the station's main reservoir.
An ancient needle valve in a free discharge application that was connected to the end of a 130-meter tunnel with a 1600-mm bore through the dam was the existing installation that was used in the Mulungushi Project. The customer made it apparent that they didn't need an in-line solution. Instead, a fixed cone valve solution would be more suitable in its place.
By doing so, they would be able to maximize the flow range available for the downstream Mulungushi Hydropower project while maintaining or even increasing discharge levels.
The project has specific requirements, including:
- Maximum operating pressure - 23m water column
- Minimum net head - 2.7m water column
- Design pressure - 60m water column
- Atmospheric discharge, hood required
- Discharge back into natural river course
- Electrical actuation for sleeve - 24DV DC
- 4-20mA Position sensing required
Our recent supply of Fixed cone valves to the Marovanyati Dam (2x DN900) and Lake Mutirikwi (2x DN1100) hydropower station in Zimbabwe, close to the Zambian project location, provided regionally relevant references. Additionally, our extensive local experience, with a significant number of AVK valves installed in Zambia for various water supply applications, strengthened our position.