Tyssedal Kraftverk

Sunday morning, June 21, 2020, cloudy. Heavy rainfall was forecast for this day. It’s not raining yet and I’m sitting in the car and heading to Odda. Yesterday I decided not to spend the day at home, and a trip to the mountains during heavy rain is not a pleasant experience. And so the idea to visit the hydroelectric power plant in Tyssedal (Tyssedal kraftverk) was born.

I had visited this facility about three years earlier and it made a huge impression on me. Unfortunately, I started sightseeing shortly before closing time and wasn’t able to see everything. Or rather, study it, because in the old administration building there is an extensive exhibition with a lot of information about life at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Odda and the surrounding area, about the development of industry and the increasing importance of the city because of industrialization. And, of course, about the construction of the power plant itself. There was a lot of information, but unfortunately lack of time prevented me from learning all the details. Additionally, I learned about the possibility of visiting the place where the huge transmission pipes begin, which transported water from a height of over 400 meters, and the entrance to the tunnels, hand-drilled by workers at the beginning of the 20th century. An attraction that cannot be missed. Now I hoped to make up for it.

I drove through Odda, a city that once lived from industry. In the very center there are still present buildings of a huge steelworks factory, at the time the largest in the world, which since 2003 has been scaring visitors with its empty, crumbling walls. The facility is on the Norwegian cultural heritage list and since 2012, efforts have been made to include it on the UNESCO list. We will return to the topic of the steelworks and the two previously operating large factories. Meanwhile, I drove through the city buildings and headed to Tyssedal, a few kilometers away, a small settlement squeezed between the Tveitanuten and Oksla mountains, right on the banks of the Sørfjord. I left the main road and headed to the waterfront, where there is the impressive building of the Tyssedal power plant, Tysso I, dating back to the first years of the 20th century.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries there was the so-called the industrial revolution, which also reached northern Europe. At that time, Odda was a popular tourist resort, visited periodically by famous people. The guests included such names as German Emperor Wilhelm II and Friedrich Engels. By 1900, there were as many as 10 hotels in Odda. One of them, with a staggering 110 rooms, was the second largest wooden building in Norway.

In 1905, Norway regained independence by separating from Sweden and a process of change took place in the country. In the years 1906 – 1920, the largest and fastest economic growth in the history of the country took place. The development of the energy industry had a huge impact on this development. During this period, hydropower contributed more to prosperity than oil and gas decades later. All large hydropower investments in those years were initiated by private companies with foreign capital, mainly from Sweden, France and Great Britain. Many of the energy and industrial companies that were founded in Norway during this period still exist, e.g. Norsk Hydro, Elkem and Orkla.

The first hydroelectric power plants in Norway appeared in the 1880s, but their large-scale development took place only in the first years of independence after 1905. This would not be possible if the potential hidden behind the energy of waterfalls and mountain rivers was not noticed. Currently, 98 percent of all electricity used in Norway comes from hydropower.

The man behind Tyssedal’s industrial development was Sam Eyde. It was he who later founded Norsk Hydro and built the Vemork factory, contributing to the development of the small settlement of Rjukan into an industrialized city. Eyde was one of the pioneers who saw the prospects hidden behind Norway’s natural resources. At the beginning of the 20th century, he acquired ownership of several waterfalls, including the Tysso Waterfall in Tyssedal.

In those days, waterfalls were traded in the wild. They were bought and sold many times, and the market value increased tenfold in just a few years. As a consequence of these speculations, in fear of foreign investors taking over the most valuable waterfalls, the Norwegian parliament, Stortinget, passed the so-called ”Panic Act”. The act brought regulations regarding the acquisition of licenses, property rights, and the takeover of waterfalls and power plants by the government after a few years. The Tysso Falls in Tyssedal was the first project to be licensed under this legislation in May 1906. Previously, the government only purchased smaller waterfalls to provide power for new railway lines. The acquisition of larger waterfalls was rarely tied to specific design plans. These were rather long-term actions and prevented the waterfalls from being taken over by foreign capital. The Panic Act significantly increased government involvement in the energy sector.

In April 1906, Sam Eyde founded the AS Tyssefaldene company. The company, which still exists today and deals with the production, transmission and sale of electricity, was founded on Swedish capital. The establishment of the company was probably related to the plans to establish two factories in Odda and, consequently, the huge demand for electricity. At the beginning of the 20th century, the technology of electricity transmission was not developed enough and industrial centers were built near energy sources. The choice of the previously tourist town as an industrial center was undoubtedly dictated by the location of Odda. Situated in a valley on both sides of high mountain slopes, abundant with waterfalls providing potential energy, and on the shore of a frost-free fjord that provided easy sea transport, Odda was an ideal choice for investors.

Two companies started planning the construction of their factories in Odda as early as 1906. The Sun Gas Company (Alby United Carbide Factories Ltd) and the North Western Cynamide Company, in June 1906, signed an agreement with AS Tyssefaldene for the sale of at least 18,000 horsepower. Construction began soon. The factories in Odda were to produce calcium carbide and calcium cyanamide. At the same time, work began on the construction of the power plant in Tyssedal. Alby United Carbide Factories was originally based in Sweden in the town of Alby, on the Ljungan River. The director of the plant, engineer Albert Petersson, decided to move production to Odda, significantly expanding the city’s infrastructure. Many things had to be built from scratch: a port, a railway, a cable car, workshops, lime kilns, blast furnaces, warehouses and apartments. These works were financed by British capital. Soon, the small village grew into a modern city, the center of which would be covered with smoke from metallurgical furnaces for years.

The construction of a carbide and cyanamide plant was one of the largest projects of this type in the world. The building permit was issued on January 25, 1908, and by the end of the year both parts of the plant were fully operational. Crowds of workers from all over Norway and also from Sweden came to Odda and Tyssedal to work. Many of them settled permanently in the area after the work was completed.

In the years 1908-1909, the production of calcium carbide (planned annual production is 32,000 tons) and calcium cyanamide (annual production of 12,000 tons) begins.

Calcium carbide or calcium acetylide, known under the common name carbide, is a compound quite widely used in metallurgy. Over the years, it has been used as a component for the production of calcium cyanamide, in the production of acetylene, as a light source in lamps (so-called carbide lamps), in welding and in the production of explosives. Calcium cyanamide, in turn, is a chemical fertilizer and herbicide. It also served as a raw material in chemical compositions, for example in the production of explosives. The fertilizer produced in Odda was called ‘Troll powder’.

Electricity was needed for both factories to function. Plans for the construction of a hydroelectric power station in Tyssedal were prepared by Sam Eyde’s engineering office. It was planned to lead the Tysso River to a 4-kilometer tunnel in the Sjeggedal Valley, 420 meters above sea level. The tunnel ran up the steep mountainside to the summit of Tyssenuten, and from there via two pipelines to the power plant on the fjord. The power plant building with a turbine hall with a polished brick facade and large arched windows and decorative details in rough brick, open to the fjord from the west, was designed by the architect Thorvald Astrup. Initially, it was only 50 meters long and housed six 20 MW machines. In the following years, the building was expanded to 180 meters and more turbines and generators were added. A total of 15 generating sets with a capacity of 100 MW. Pipelines supplying water from the distribution basin located over 400 meters above powered the turbines in the machinery hall. The control room was located at the back of the hall, on the first floor. In order for the power plant building to be built, a rock ledge and an access road had to be created on a steep mountain slope falling directly into the fjord. Dynamite was used. The power plant was built in several stages. The first phase was completed in 1908, less than two years after planning began. Workers by hand, using hammers, chisels and dynamite, carved a 3,460-meter-long tunnel, built the first two pipelines, a power plant and the first dam. The work was carried out in a hurry so that it could start producing electricity for the needs of both factories being built in Odda. The work was extremely difficult and took place in difficult conditions. The first two pipelines, with a total length of 730 meters, were built in the winter of 1907, so in addition to the steep mountain, workers had to contend with bitter cold, snow and ice.

The inclination of slope on which the pipelines were laid is up to 60 degrees in some places. Workers had to work on makeshift scaffolding or hang from ropes along the slopes. They had to carry cement and wood for formwork on their backs. Some of the materials were transported by cable car running along the pipelines. In order for the steel pipes to withstand the pressure of 400 meters of water, their lower parts were made of 5-6 meter sections with a wall thickness of one inch. Individual sections were connected on site with a double row of rivets. The higher it was, the smaller the thickness of the pipeline wall could be. Individual sections of the appropriate length with pre-drilled holes for rivets were made in the workshop and, once ready, transported by cable car to the slope, where assembly took place.

Within a year and a half, about 500 workers managed to build a tunnel from Sjeggedal to Lilletopp, a power plant, supply pipelines, an overflow tunnel in Lake Ringedal, a quay, a cableway, an office building, engineers’ houses, workers’ barracks and a power line to Odda. If it weren’t for old photographs from that period, it would be hard to imagine how all this was possible.

In the following years, the power plant building was expanded, a second tunnel was drilled and three more supply pipelines were added. A huge dam was built on Lake Ringedal in the Sjeggedal Valley. At that time it was the largest adjustable dam in Europe. The dam, completed in 1918, is 520 meters long, 33 meters high and made of 100,000 hand-hewn granite blocks. Below the Ringedal Dam, on Lilletopp (420 m above sea level), there is a distribution basin from which the pipelines supplying the power plant originate. Two tunnels lead from the dam to the distribution basin. A guard’s house and a forge were built next to the pool.

Initially, workers and engineers lived in Odda and came to Tyssedal by boat every day. The working day lasted 10 hours and the worker received remuneration of 30 øre per hour for his work. Man could consider himself lucky to earn 4 to 5 crowns a day. Over time, barracks for manual workers and houses (sometimes impressive residences) for the administration were built. The division between poor workers and better-off engineers and directors was all too visible. In the workers’ barracks, there were only 16 beds for 32 men, and they also had to deal with hordes of lice biting them every night.

Sam Eyde left Tyssefaldene in 1910, concentrating on his new business at Norsk Hydro. He was replaced by Ragnvald Blakstad and it is his initials that can be seen today on the Ringedal dam and the front of the Tysso I power plant.

The Tysso I power plant produced electricity with a frequency of 25 Hz. This caused a noticeable flickering of the light. However, 50 Hz electricity was supplied to the homes of directors and administration employees. In the machinery hall, right next to the large generators, you can find two small converters that increase the frequency of the generating electricity. Workers working at the power plant affectionately called these machines “snobs”, as they produced “the better” electricity for important people. In 1967, the construction of the Tysso II power plant in Sjeggedal was completed and the power transmission was adjusted to the then standard 50 Hz. Nevertheless, until the power plant was closed in 1989, it supplied electricity with a frequency of 25 Hz to industrial plants in Odda, where two generators worked to obtain the appropriate amplitude of 50 Hz. Thanks to the power plant, the inhabitants of Odda and Tyssedal already had electricity supplied to their homes in 1913, which was not very common at that time.

When the war broke out in 1914, the plants in Odda faced economic difficulties. Albert Petersson went to London for financial negotiations, but disappeared without a trace while traveling on a ship to Bergen. Petersson, considered the founder of industry in Odda, was honored by the residents with a monument that can be seen near the bridge in Vasstun. The position of director was taken over by Petersson’s former deputy, engineer Frans Wilhelm Bruce.

The following years are very difficult for the Odda community. The post-war depression, falling prices, low production levels and restrictive monetary policy make it difficult for many sectors of the economy to survive. Tourism also ceases to bring income. In 1921, both factories went bankrupt.

Three years later, in 1924, the Odda Steelworks (Odda Smeltverk AS) was established, resuming the production of calcium carbide and calcium cyanamide. In 1937, the plant passed into the hands of the British. The majority of the shares are purchased by the British Oxygen Company, which translates into increased sales and better development conditions. In 1951, a dicyanodiamide factory was established. The year 1955 was a time of extensive modernization. In 1982, one of the largest closed calcium carbide furnaces in the world began operating at the steelworks. In 1998, the American company Philipp Brothers Chemicals Inc. became the owner of the factory. A year later, a new product is introduced to the market: hydrogen cyanamide (CY-50). In 2001, the CY factory was taken over by the German company Degussa, after which it was dismantled and rebuilt in Germany. In 2002, production was suspended as a result of a 50% increase in the price of dicyanodiamide. The following year, the steelworks announced its bankruptcy. 217 employees lose their jobs and the production equipment is dismantled. Since 2011, the remains of the steelworks have become part of Norway’s national cultural heritage and efforts to include them on the UNESCO list have begun.

This does not mean, however, that the history of industry in Odda has ended. In 1916, the Norwegian Nitrogen Company was established in Tyssedal, producing aluminum. After its closure in the 1980s, the TiZir factory was opened to produce cast iron and slag containing titanium. On the other side of the fjord, in the years 1924 – 1929, a zinc factory, Norzink (now Boliden Odda AS), was built. In 2016, a separate company was established from the latter, specializing in the production of aluminum fluoride under the name Noralf AS. Driving through Odda and Tyssedal, it is impossible not to notice the smoke rising from the chimneys of these still operating factories.

Coming back to the Tysso I power plant, it ceased operations in 1989. Today, electricity in Tyssedal is provided by the Oksla power plant, located entirely inside the mountain just behind its old predecessor. Oksla has only one generator, but it is capable of generating energy with a capacity of 200 GWh, more than in the old Tysso I. Unfortunately, the new power plant is not open to tourists.

After the closure of energy production at the Tysso I power plant, actions were taken to include the plant on the list of national cultural heritage. At the same time, efforts were made to restore the building and the machines inside to their former glory. Renovation works started in mid-May 2000 and lasted for 4 years. The external walls were partially covered with new plaster and repainted, the roof was re-installed, consisting of 45,000 stone tiles, and the wrought-iron frames of 1,000 windows were replaced; gutters, drains and copper fittings were partially replaced with new ones. Pipelines were supplied from the nearby TiZir factory to distribute dry, warm air inside the building, which made it possible to dispense with expensive electric heating. Inside, sandblasting, plaster maintenance and polishing were carried out, and the walls and ceiling were painted. The machines were sandblasted and painted, and the colors of decorative panels and frames were renewed. The ceramic tile floor was restored, wrought iron lamps and technical equipment were restored. Pipelines were also renovated.

Today, the power plant building is the main attraction of the museum. Visitors have access to the entire machinery hall and can also watch a multimedia show about the construction of the power plant and the development of the region. The several-minute-long film was enriched with archival photos, many of which were taken by one of the leading photographers of that era, Knud Knudsen, from Odda.

Due to the excellent acoustics, concerts are also organized in the power plant building.

Entering the machinery hall at the Tysso I power plant, I felt as if I had traveled back in time. A long hall with a high vault and huge units painted in a uniform blue color arranged in a row are one thing. But the experience of being able to walk on the old floor, touch every available turbine and inhale the smell of grease, as if the plant were still in operation, is a top-shelf attraction. The building itself gives the impression of a work of art, and a walk through the interior full of machines leaves a person (especially one with a technical education) truly amazed. There is also a control room available to visitors, located above the generators, which impresses with the size of the control panel and the number of switches, knobs and indicators.

As if that were not enough, those interested in additional attractions can visit Lilletopp (420 m above sea level), where there is a distribution pool, a caretaker’s house, and the entrance to the tunnels and supply pipelines.