Ioze hydro provides effective advice for those that wish to invest in hydro power plants (HPPs).
Easy Engineering: Tell us about your company and what types of services do you offer?
Ioze hydro: We are a private, family-owned company. We are running our business with passion, and we are constantly growing, although we have a long-term experience. The beginning of the business reaches the moment when we transformed an old mill into a small hydropower plant (abbreviation: SHP). Today, for more than 15 years we have provided complex services in the hydropower sector – starting from counselling, technical concept, and support for investors in undertaking business decisions through designing an entire plant to its construction under the turnkey solution. We specialize in design and performance of modern water turbines with a particular pressure on development of solutions that enable the use of the potential in low-head locations. Moreover, we have a portfolio of own SHP that are operating close to this type of damming devices. Intense work of a well-coordinated, multidisciplinary team of specialists ensured us a position of a leader in the national hydropower market. However, we want more. Therefore, we make steps towards exporting our technologies into internal markets.
E.E: What are the newest products in your range?
Ioze hydro: Recently, we have introduced to the market, products for low-head locations, the number of which as available for hydro energy purposes is the highest. These are siphon Kaplan turbine and an active fish pass for water fauna.
The technology for siphon Kaplan was developed to use the hydropower potential of an ultra-low-head locations, which in the past were found unprofitable. A highly efficient and non-complicated turbine built in the modular, prefabricated structure limits the construction works to the minimum, thus ensures competitive profitability of the investment. The application of this technology also enables a considerable saving of time due to fast delivery and realization of the investment.
An active fish pass was developed as a response to the environmental needs but also challenges related to unclogging the damming with which investors of the branch of SHP must deal with under the law. This solution constitutes a profitable alternative for traditional fish passes and enables the water fauna to make a way through hydrotechnical obstacles safely and fast. At the same time, it enables the use hydropower potential which these buildings have. An active fish pass enables the use of this potential for the favour of the environment.
Except for the two mentioned above, IOZE hydro has introduced microturbines to its offer – solutions dedicated for the use of hydropower micro potential available in plants, waste management plants, sewage systems (microturbines work on transmission pipelines) but also in run-of-river micro-SHPs. Microturbines, like a siphon Kaplan turbines and active fish pass are dedicated to low-heads.
E.E: Which are the most innovative / trending products and what distinctive features do they have?
Ioze hydro: The group of the most innovative include the above-mentioned newest technologies from our portfolio. The basis for innovativeness is a fact that these technologies enable to profitably perform hydropower projects which have not had an economic justification so far and have been frozen or haven not been undertaken at all. Thanks to our products, unfavourable state of things, which have been rooted, has changed. With regard to small hydropower plants on low-heads, IOZE indicates the trends for the whole industry.
The wide range of operation thanks to the system of double control and high – over 90% performance of the electric energy production system is what distinguishes the siphon Kaplan turbine. Introduction of the technology of siphon Kaplan enables over 50% limitation of the construction works costs in comparison to the traditional solution. However, thanks to the siphon Kaplan turbine, realization of the SHP with at least 1 m height head is economically justified.
Microturbines that constitute a completion of our offer for low-head locations enable to fill in the unfavourable niche of industrial locations that offer small but constant water flow and damming on flowing water where low flows are reported.
An active fish pass for the water fauna is an alternative competition for traditional fish passes. Its innovativeness is expressed in the fact that it is energy-plus. It means that the size of the energy production as a result of the operation of the downstream route (fish transport downstream) exceeds many times the own needs of the device related to the supply of the upstream route (transport of fish upstream). The energy is available for further management, including sales. Contrary to standard fish passes, e.g., vertical slot fishways, the costs incurred on unclogging the damming for migration of water fauna with the help of the active fish pass are reimbursed, which in turn is in favour of the investment. Without any detriment to the economic aspect of the investment, it should be mentioned that the device enables safe fish transport (but also other groups of water organisms which was shown in the studies) without losing energy upstream and downstream. The construction of the device is based on the Archimedes’ screw technology.
E.E: How important are these features for the users in their work?
Ioze hydro: Innovative features of our products decide on the innovativeness of the undertaking. Therefore, they are crucial for business decisions and further use of the small hydropower plant. Despite innovative features, a friendly cooperation of the user with a SHP is influenced by the entire accompanying infrastructure, the provider of which is also IOZE hydro. The objects realised by us are fully automated, they do not need an operator, they only need a cyclic supervision. The operator has a remote access to them from any place around the world and may comfortably control their operation from the application on the computer or a smartphone screen. We make our best to make SHP’s getting to the investors, not only technologically advanced and financially profitable but also ensuring comfort of cooperation that is close to human nature.
E.E: How do your new products / services differ from others on the market?
Ioze hydro: Objectively, within the low-head technologies, our products have no competition. We fill in the niche that has been omitted so far by national producers of turbines due to perception of low-head locations as unprofitable for hydro energy management. IOZE hydro shows that this approach was erroneous, by successful realization of further investments. Also, within the technologies that enable water fauna a free double-direction migration through damming equipment, our active fish pass has no equivalent with which we could compare the product. The active fish pass is a device which except for the basic environmental function produces also electric energy, which on the other hand, translates into high profitability of this type of solution for unclogging low damming. With regard to the technological aspect, we cannot compare our solution to traditional technical fish passes which are hydrotechnical buildings.
E.E: Tell us about research and development in your company.
Ioze hydro: IOZE hydro owns a Centre for Research and Development of Hydropower Technologies whose staff works on innovative solutions and development of basic products. Each our hydro energy device is developed in a full research process, i.e., a concept – project – test model – research – optimization -prototype – escort. Additionally in the optimization area within the computational fluid dynamics and hydraulics, we cooperate with a renowned, one of the best around the world – research centre from Austria. For years we have successfully performed R +D projects based on the contracts concluded with the National Centre for Research and Development and the Ministry of Development and Technology.
E.E: What impact has product innovation on your customers?
Ioze hydro: We focus on usefulness of our products and the result. Water plants are investments from which we expect a specific rate of return from the monetary contribution. Our products are designed with pressure on optimization of production costs, exploitation costs and costs of the closest necessary infrastructure including construction works indispensable for foundation of turbines. We perceive the issue through the eyes of our clients through perspective of the investment project and not only through the supply of a turbine, product.
E.E: What new products / solutions are you going to launch in the future?
Ioze hydro: We are constantly improving our technologies. We focus on designing such solutions which will operate automatically in the most reliable way. We provide grate cleaners, automated mechanical equipment of water shut out and modern turbine regulators and control system for the entire water plant to ensure continuity of production with the highest possible efficiency of production of electrical energy. We do not want to reveal too many details due to the company’s secret, but we would like to mention that we commence works on the solution dedicated to the pumped-storage power station of a smaller scale.
E.E: Which industries, in your opinion, will be developing in 2024?
Ioze hydro: RES as installations generating energy for the own needs in industry. Legal regulations within ESG compliance or taxonomy introduce a new trend in the development of economy. Therefore, we developed technologies of microturbines, because this is a device which may realize energy recovery in many industries where water circulation is ensured.
E.E: Which products/solutions do you offer for these industries?
Ioze hydro: As it was said- microturbines but also systems that control the dispersed production sources or hybrid solutions using renewable energy sources.
All parties interested in our technologies are invited to visit our website hydro.ioze.pl and to contact us personally: Łukasz Kalina, Business Development Manager, lukasz.kalina@ioze.pl, +48 512 008 805