engineering

Thermal power plant of Vouvry

Thermal power plant of Vouvry is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thermal power plant of Vouvry rather than just read about it. In short: The thermal power plant of Vouvry, also known as the Chavalon Plant, is a former power station located in the municipality of Vouvry, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. Until its closure in 1999, the plant utilized heavy fuel oil, combusted to heat a steam generator.

Key takeaways

Thermal power plant of Vouvry belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thermal power plant of Vouvry to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thermal power plant of Vouvry from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The thermal power plant of Vouvry, also known as the Chavalon Plant, is a former power station located in the municipality of Vouvry, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. Until its closure in 1999, the plant utilized heavy fuel oil, combusted to heat a steam generator. The vaporized water then drove a turbine, which powered an alternator. As Switzerland's sole oil-fired power plant, it was constructed in 1965 by a consortium led by the company Énergie de l'Ouest-Suisse (EOS) to address the wintertime electricity production deficits of Swiss hydropower. Initially planned on the territory of the commune of Aigle in the canton of Vaud, it benefited from its proximity to the Collombey refinery, enabling it to produce electricity at preferential rates. However, by the late 1990s, the plant operation had generated significant financial losses, leading the operators to decommission the site. Since then, several rehabilitation projects have been proposed, but the plant remains abandoned. The plant site, situated approximately 450 meters above the plain, was constructed to limit pollution. It consists of two plateaus and a slope and includes a main building housing the machine room, a 120-meter exhaust chimney, four cooling towers, a cable car station, and 17 villas, which Chavalon employees previously inhabited. The plant is connected to the Collombey refinery by a pipeline that primarily traverses the Stockalper Canal, which was utilized to provide makeup water. The generated electricity was fed into the Swiss power grid via a 220 kV high-voltage line.

Geography

The Chavalon thermal power plant is situated in Switzerland, in the canton of Valais, on the territory of the municipality of Vouvry. It is located on the natural balcony of Chavalon, at an altitude of 825 meters, with a view of the Rhône plain from an altitude of 450 meters. The plant site is accessible from Vouvry by a cable car which operated between 1965 and 2005. Additionally, a road leads to the plant, diverging from the route to the village of Miex. The plant buildings are distributed on a slope and two platforms are constructed from biogenic sedimentary rocks and evaporites based on limestone and, on occasion, marl. The platform for the plant building measures 27,000 m², while the one for the cooling towers is 10,000 m², for a total site area of 75,000 m².

History

Genesis

In the 1950s, the Raffineries du Rhône company initiated a refinery project in the Swiss Chablais region. The Rhône pipeline was to transport oil from Genoa, Italy, to a refinery originally planned near Aigle in the canton of Vaud. However, since the pipeline passed through Valais, the canton requested that the refinery be located on its soil, and it was ultimately built in Collombey. In 1959, the company Énergie de l'Ouest-Suisse (EOS) sought a solution to enhance its electricity production during winter months. To this end, it prepared a report recommending the expansion of hydroelectric plants and the construction of thermal power plants to address potential production shortages. Additionally, the report considered the feasibility of a nuclear power plant, although this technology was still in its developmental phase at the time. The presence of the Collombey refinery also facilitated the supply of a potential plant at favorable prices, thereby further motivating its construction. To compensate for the change of canton of the refinery, the new plant was planned on the territory of the commune of Aigle. The project was led by a consortium between EOS and the "Raffineries du Rhône" company. In February 1961, a construction permit application was filed for a 150 MW plant with a 120-meter chimney at the site called "Les Îles." However, the project received 39 objections during the public inquiry, with the majority of concerns about sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution and its potential impact on the local environment and public health. Following several appeals from the population and the commune of Ollon, the Council of State of Vaud imposed a minimum chimney height of 300 meters. This prompted a reaction from the Federal Office of Aviation, which declared in January 1962 that such a tall chimney would be "extraordinarily dangerous" for air navigation and decided to limit its height to 180 meters. As a result, the consortium was forced to seek a new location. Subsequently, the project was evaluated at four potential locations, three within the canton of Vaud and one within Valais, at the Porte-du-Scex site. The latter was selected as the most cost-effective option, estimated to be 25% cheaper than the others. To address the chimney issue, a "fumoduc" was proposed, which would vent the smoke to the Pro de Taila at an altitude of 1,270 meters. In 1962, the "Porte-du-Scex thermal power plant" company was established, with shareholders including EOS (40%), CFF (15%), Aluminium Suisse (10%), Lonza (10%), Raffineries du Rhône (5%), and Romande Énergie (5%). However, the soil quality at Porte-du-Scex proved to be inadequate, and ensuring the safety of a "fumoduc" system was challenging. The project was thus relocated once more, this time to the Pro de Taila site, which, however, proved to be excessively isolated. Ultimately, the Chavalon site was selected as a satisfactory compromise. The final construction site was confirmed in May 1963. The ventilation conditions at Chavalon were found to be optimal, and thus the chimney height was set at 120 meters. This height allowed the chimney to vent the plant's smoke at a height of nearly 950 meters above sea level, above the inversion layer (900 meters). Jean Lugeon, director of the Swiss Meteorological Institute, conducted environmental measurements and concluded that the risk of pollution should not exceed the tolerated time limit. The final project was approved on July 10, 1963, and the plant management company changed its name on January 21, 1964, to become "Vouvry SA thermal power plant." Facing financial difficulties, the "Raffineries du Rhône" sold its financial participation to the other shareholders in 1965.

Construction and commissioning

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thermal power plant of Vouvry

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thermal power plant of Vouvry claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thermal power plant of Vouvry before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thermal power plant of Vouvry ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thermal power plant of Vouvry

In research: Thermal power plant of Vouvry appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thermal power plant of Vouvry in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thermal power plant of Vouvry is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures in Valais, Electricity, Energy infrastructure completed in 1965, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thermal power plant of Vouvry outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Thermal power plant of Vouvry” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Thermal power plant of Vouvry in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thermal power plant of Vouvry means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thermal power plant of Vouvry out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thermal power plant of Vouvry in simple terms?

Why does Thermal power plant of Vouvry matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thermal power plant of Vouvry?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thermal power plant of Vouvry.