A group of thirteen German students from the University of Bochum visited the La Malva hydro plant in Somiedo, owned by EDP. This visit is one of the activities programmed by the group of university students during the study trip that the facilities of different companies and institutions in Asturias and Castilla y León are covering these days.

The students are studying Process Engineering and the objective of this visit is to know the operation of the EDP aulic power plant, to carry out a work on the electric power generation process.

The decision to make the study trip to Asturias has been made by the students themselves who, knowing the twinning between their city and Oviedo since 1980, have decided that their destination is the Asturian region.

The students were accompanied by one of their teachers and by two of the employees of the plant, Sandra Pérez and Jorge Robledo.

The visit begun in the engine room, where the four generating groups of the power plant are located, which add up to a power of 12 MW. Here they learnt the process of power generation.

Next, they visited the exhibition that houses the old homes of the director and employees. It consists of different rooms with panels that explain the arrival of electricity and its importance for economic and social development, both for Somiedo and Asturias, the design, construction and commissioning of La Malva, as well as the main milestones that have marked the history of EDP pain.

The zone of the old workshop has been another one of the stays of the exhibition that the university students have visited. Located in a remote area and difficult to access, La Malva had a workshop that allowed it to be self-sufficient in small repairs. In the exhibition you can see different machines and tools of the time.

The visit ended in the simulator of the control room of the central, which allows to know how the generating groups are started and stopped.

La Malva has recently completed its first one hundred years. The central act of the centenary was presided over by His Majesty Philip VI.

This hydraulic power plant is the origin of EDP pain. It rises in the heart of the Somiedo Natural Park and is one of the few power plants in the world located in a Biosphere Reserve, so declarated by Unesco in 2000.

The natural resources offered by the region are ideal for energy production, so it was positioned, since its commissioning in 1917, among the main industrial centers of the Iberian Peninsula. It is also the first hydroelectric plant in which a woman worked.

In its first one hundred years, La Malva has generated more than 3 million megawatt hours. Its average annual production, 35,000 MWh, translates into the consumption of 10,000 homes.