The Våga farm is located by Hustoftvannet lake, between Imsland and Skipavåg in Vindafjord municipality. It has little arable land, but the larger outlying area is comprised of farms and a steep river.
The new power plant has an intake just below Vågastølen. The intake is located on property owned by many other farms at Hustoft and Skipavåg.
In 2003, a contract was signed with Småkraft, which assumed the risk, the work with the licensing process and the development itself. NVE granted a licence in 2007. The construction work began at the turn of the year, 2008/2009. In October 2012, the power plant was ready to deliver its contribution in the form of new renewable energy and local business revenues.
The water from the Vågaåna river has previously been used for business purposes. In addition to the power plant, the river currently supplies a hatchery, Vågafossen Settefisk AS, located at the river’s outlet to the sea.
With its natural stone walls and a glass façade, the station building has an attractive exterior and has been nicely adapted to the terrain near the highway to Ryfylke. The Vågaåna power plant has become a facility both the landowners and Småkraft can be proud of!
The implementation of the construction project has had its challenges. Construction in this steep terrain required a waterway through mountain. Småkraft chose to solve these challenges through a collaboration with Norhard, which carried out rock drilling as a pilot project for its directional drilling technology.
The advantage of drilling a waterway through rock is that the solution results in less environmental impact and the potential for lower costs compared to conventional tunnel/shaft solutions. The project at Vågaåna has provided those involved with significant experience and good knowledge of how to carry out future projects based on directional rock drilling.
In a pilot project like this, it is particularly important to be able to handle challenges as they arise. Experienced contractors working in tandem with experienced project management have undoubtedly been important for tackling unforeseen problems during the project.
Vågaåna power plant has inflow from a catchment area of 5.1 km2. An intake at elevation 465 and a power station at elevation 38 provide a head of 427 meters. Production is estimated at 9.8 GWh in a normal year. This corresponds to the electricity consumption of 490 households. The minimum flow is 50 l/sec throughout the year.
The Pelton turbine has 4 jets with a maximum capacity of 0.98 m3/sec. It drives a generator of 3,800 kVA, 6,600 V. All electricity is transformed up to 22 kV for delivery to the grid. The intake dam is built as a blasted pool with a low dam in reinforced concrete using a “shark cage” (prefabricated) as the intake structure. The intake is very well adapted to the local terrain and appears as a very modest intervention. The waterway consists of 2 boreholes of 150 and 720 meters respectively, as well as 180 meters of pipe in a trench, with a diameter of 0.6 meters.
The power station building has an area of 80 m2 and is built in the well-known Småkraft style, constructed above ground and well integrated into the terrain. The tailrace is led through pipes into the river course.
