Balancing Penstock Safety With Project Economics

The penstocks at many hydroelectric stations were built between 19 10 and 1950 and now exceed their initial design life. Because penstocks are primary pressure retaining structures essential to a station’s operation, their safe and reliable condition is critical to a project’s financial performance. But the current decrease in energy values has aggravated the inevitable conflict between penstock safety expenditures and project economics. This paper will illustrate how this balance was achieved at two hydroelectric projects that faced major penstock rehabilitation problems.