The northern water base is formed by the stretch of the Danube directly above Budapest, the Szentendrei Island and the protected areas on the right and left banks of the river, which meet the majority of the capital’s water needs, about 70 percent. The water extracted here is of drinking water quality and, after disinfection, can be fed directly into the water network, i.e. no further purification is required.

The water produced on Szentendrei Island is shared between the Balparti and Békásmegyeri plants. Here, too, the water arrives at the intakes under the Danube and is pushed into the pipe network by pumps from the old power houses built in 1934 and 36 and the new power house, built as an extension in 1977. The two 800 mm and one 1200 mm main lines from the plant supply the Buda side, with their end points at the Krisztinavárosi and Gellért-hegy basins respectively. The plant is located in a park of several hectares.

The old powerhouse houses the 0.4 kV machines supplying the Békásmegyer housing estate, which feeds the Rókahegyi basin.

In the new powerhouse, the original 1977 design of the 10 kV motors of the pumping units included 4 constant speed and 2 variable speed drives.

In 2013, the Budapest Waterworks Ltd. decided to completely renovate the Békásmegyeri plant with modern equipment.

The electrical reconstruction of the power house was and is being carried out in 3 phases.

For the reconstruction works, the Budapest Waterworks Zrt. Zrt. The Waterworks Company of Budapest Waterworks Ltd. has launched “Simplified Procurement Procedures” from 2014 to date, from which the entire scope of phases 1 and 2 and the production of the process control cabinets in phase 3 were awarded.

In phase 1, 4 new EVIG motors were installed in 2014 for the existing pumps, of which 2 with 10 kV constant speed starting resistors and 2 with 690 V variable speed motors fed via Schneider block transformers and ABB frequency converters.

In phase 2, in 2015, the entire 10 kV distribution equipment was replaced with a 20-cell ABB ZS1 type with state-of-the-art Protecta digital protection.

The following tasks were also included in the implementation:

– automatic compensation of capacitive reactive energy at 10 kV voltage level with 1 MANGOLD shunt reactor of 150 kVAr and 1 MANGOLD shunt reactor of 300 kVAr

– conversion of the old 10-field Moeller ID-2000 0.4 kV main distribution installation in the power house

– installation of a new 3-field RITTAL 0,4 kV distribution installation in the power house

– Installation of 2 Siemens dry-type transformers of 10/0,4 kV 630 kVA for domestic service

– 10 kV and 0,4 kV primary, signalling and operating wiring

– integration into the plant management system

In both phases, the works were completed on time and in accordance with the high quality standards expected by the Budapest Waterworks Ltd.

In Phase 3, the contract for the production of control cabinets as part of the process control system was awarded in 2016 and is currently being executed.