Frua hydroelectric power plant

The hydroelectric power plant is named after Giuseppe Frua, an industrialist from Lombardy. It’s located in another northern Italian region, Piedmont, specifically in the municipality of Germagno, near Verbania.

The plant was built between 1922 and 1927 on the Strona, a tributary of Lake Orta. Its original purpose was to supply electricity to a cotton mill. It is a run-of-the-river power plant and is part of a group of four small- to medium-sized cascade plants.

The Frua plant is currently undergoing repowering with the reconfiguration of the operation profile, thanks to the complete replacement of the three equal power hydro units with two new 2.8MW units of different sizes. This is in order to better manage the derivable flows. The project also involves the renovation of the diversion channel and the replacement of the pipeline.