The Krokstrand and Hammernes farms are located in Beiardalen in Beiarn municipality. Together with Statskog, which owns large tracts of land in Beiarn, they own the fall rights in Muoidejohka. The landowners were aware that the river could have good potential for small-scale power. How the value creation from the river was to be realized was the subject of several plans over the years. In 1944, a cooperative was formed with 68 members, the purpose of which was to provide electricity to those living within Gråttånes in Beiardalen.
Much of the power resources at the bottom of the Beiardalen valley were developed in the early 1990s, but Muoidejohka was not affected by the development at the time. When the next stage of construction was to be realized in the late 1990s, it was intended that Muoidejohka would also be transferred to Glomfjord. However, there was so much opposition to this that the government stopped the project in 2000, at the last minute before construction began. It was in his New Year’s speech in 2001 that Stoltenberg proclaimed that “the time for new major hydropower developments in Norway is over”.
In 2004, a contract was signed with Småkraft, which took on the risk, the work on the licensing process and the actual development. During the final inspection, it emerged that Statskog was the owner of the upper part of the fall. Statskog became an active co-owner in the project, and Muoidejohka Kraft AS became the project owner. NVE granted a license in 2010. The excavators arrived in the summer of 2011. And in 2014, the power plant was ready to deliver its contribution in the form of new renewable energy and local business income.
With natural stone walls and a glass facade, the station building is beautiful to look at, where it is nicely adapted to the terrain close to the confluence with the Beiar river.
The implementation of the project has had its challenges along the way, a pilot project with drilling from a rock cavern, a waterway in porous rock, costly access to the power grid and telecommunications network, and a harsh winter during the construction phase – to name but a few.
Cooperation with the landowners has been good. Their contribution in the form of local knowledge and presence during the construction phase has contributed to good project implementation.
Muoidejohka power plant has inflow from a catchment area of 14 km2. The minimum flow in winter is 10 l/s, while in summer it is 100 l/s. The intake at elevation 622 and the power station at elevation 144 give a head of 478 meters. Production is estimated at 18.2 GWh in a normal year. This corresponds to the electricity consumption of 910 households.
The Pelton turbine has 5 jets with a maximum capacity of 1.50 m3/sec and drives a generator of 5490 kVA, 6600 v. All power is transformed up to 22 kV and delivered to the grid. The grid is reinforced to Beiarn transformer, which is about 20 km further down in Beiardalen.
The intake dam is built as a blasted culvert with a low dam in reinforced concrete with a cast separation between the catchment dam and the intake culvert. The intake is well adapted to the terrain at the site, and appears as a modest intervention.
The penstock is made of ductile iron from the shaft to the station, while the shaft is lined with steel pipes. Diameter is 700 mm. The entire waterway is located in bedrock or buried.
The power station building is built in the familiar Småkraft style, is 80 m2, built on the ground and well integrated into the terrain. The sewage is piped/channeled into the river.
