Qorlortorsuaq Hydroelectric Project, Greenland

The 7 MW Qorlortorsuaq hydropower project is located in south western Greenland. The project harnesses the outflow from a natural lake by blasting a headrace tunnel into the bottom of the lake and raising the lake level by 7 m by a small dam. The headrace tunnel runs 220 m trough a hill and is connected to a 280 m long steel penstock feeding two horizontal axis Francis turbines in a conventional powerhouse. A short tailrace canal takes the turbine water to the sea. Harnessed head is about 125 m. The power is feed to the towns of Narsaq and Qaqortoq with 70 km of 66 kV transmission lines. The services included procurement of electromechanical equipment, supervision of equipment installation, commissioning, setting up maintenance and operation programs, training of operators and management of operation for the first 5 years. To be completed in 2011.