Neckartal Dam, the Design & Supply of the Hydro Mechanical Equipment
Author: Edwin Lillie, Guido Scalzi
Conference: AFRICA 2019
Date: April 2-4, 2019
Neckartal Dam is located on the Fish River, a tributary of the Orange River. The construction of Neckartal Dam started in September 2013. It will be the largest dam in Namibia and the eighth largest dam in Southern Africa by storage volume. Neckartal Dam is primarily for irrigation. Water is released from the dam and abstracted some 13km downstream from a weir. From there it is pumped to a balancing dam above the irrigation area. There is a mini hydropower station at the dam to generate electricity from the irrigation releases. Although the civil works make up the largest proportion of the capital cost of the project, the hydro mechanical equipment is vitally important to the success of the project. This paper gives a description of the hydro mechanical equipment for the project, the contractual arrangements to procure and install it, some of the important specifications used for the design and manufacture of the equipment and the quality assurance methods used to ensure that the equipment meets the long-term project requirements. Figure 1 shows the downstream view of the dam and outlet works taken from a drone.
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