.jpg "Photo: Tuoi Tre")
Engineers on Friday successfully installed the rotor of the first turbine of the Son La Hydropower Plant to enable the country’s largest plant of its kind to start running on December 25 as scheduled.
With a diameter of 15.589 meters, a height of 2.816 meters, and weighing 1,000 tons, it is the heaviest rotor of hydro-electric power plants in Vietnam.
According to the Son La plant management board, the rotor installation will be followed by a test run of equipment of the plant’s auxiliary systems in the next two months.
The first turbine group will undergo a test run from November 15 to 30 before generating power on December 25, 2010 as planned.
The Son La power plant has six turbines designed to have a combined capacity of 2,400 MW.
As many as 17,996 households in Son La, Dien Bien and Lai Chau provinces have relocated to give land to the Son La plant, which has a total investment capital of over VND42.47 trillion ($2.2 billion).
The power plant is expected to be completed by 2012.
