Altheim test case

Introduction

The Test Case is located on the river Ariège in the South of France, between Crampagna and Varilhes. The dam of Labarre at the upstream part of the water body constitutes a block to upstream migration and participates to the regulation of flows with its reservoir of 400 000 m3 (17.6 ha).

The hydrology of the Ariège is characterized by a sustained flows in winter, high water levels in spring due to snow melting and low water period from August to October. During the downstream migration period of smolts (March, April, May) the mean monthly discharges range from 41.3 m3/s in March to 79.1 m3/s in May.

The hydropower plant of Las Rives is part of a section of 20 km with 5 hydropower plants. Altogether, there are 7 further HPPs are located upstream and downstream of the Test Case.

About the hydropower plant

The HPP of Las Rives is downstream the station of Foix. It has an installed capacity of 2.7 MW and a mean inter-annual discharge of about 41.8 m3/s. There are several creeks and one watercourse flowing into the Ariège before the HPP Las Rives.

Layout

The HPP of Las Rives is an run-off-river HPP which bypass reach is 580 meters long.

The Operator: ONDULIA

ONDULIA is a green energy producer. It owns 10 hydropower plants, 8 wind farms and one photovoltaic roof. This represents an installed capacity of 77MW thanks to 64 turbines. The mean annual production of their installations is around 180 million kWh, corresponding to the consumption of a city of 70 000 inhabitants. Read more.