Construction of a pumped storage hydro power plant located near the community of Hatta in the Hajar Mountains, 140 km southeast of the city of Dubai. The plant is a key element in Dubai’s goal of achieving the targets of its Clean Energy Strategy 2050.The existing Saad Hatta Al Awwal Dam is being used as the lower reservoir, while the upper reservoir is approx. 150 m higher. Both reservoirs are connected by a 1.2 km long pressure tunnel. The upper reservoir was constructed with two roller-compacted concrete dams with a height of approximately 35 m and 70 m. Also, part of the project is a powerhouse with two units capable of generating a total net power of 250 MW over the six-hour generation cycle. Waterways consist of one tunnel approx. 1,300 m in length and 7 m in diameter to feed the powerhouse at around 200 m³/s.
For displacement monitoring in the Main dam, it is equipped with one line of pendulum that sets across the highest cross section of the dam. It includes one direct pendulum from the dam crest to the intermediate gallery and one direct pendulum from the intermediate gallery to the bottom gallery. It also includes an inverted pendulum that is anchored at least 15 m below the dam foundation. These pendulums are equipped with a reading table that is installed in the intermediate & bottom gallery. These pendulums and reading tables allow to see if the dam is moving relative to the foundation. All stations in the main dam are equipped with Geosense instruments including table, Manual & Automatic Pendulum readout units.
For displacement monitoring in the Saddle dam, it is equipped with one line of pendulum that sets across the highest cross section of the dam. It includes one direct pendulum from the dam crest to the gallery. It also includes an inverted pendulum that is anchored at least 15 m below the dam foundation. These pendulums are equipped with Geosense manual pendulum readout unit (MPR-2000) & Automatic pendulum readout units (TP-2D-2001) including combined stainless-steel brackets.
And for displacement monitoring the powerhouse, another 3 units are used including 2# direct pendulums, one in bottom & another in the intermediate level. It also includes an inverted pendulum at the bottom too.
The most challenging part was revising the existing dataloggers start program to able monitoring pendulums automatically by Campbell Sci CR1000X.
