Energy and water in Drobeta Turnu Severin
The Hydroelectric Power System of the Iron Gates (SHNPF)
The local officials bestowed particular attention to the lighting of the town by introducing street lamp lighting in 1850 and later, the electricity produced by the power plant located in the public gardens (1907).
Today, the kilowatts are pumped by the power giant from Gura-Vaii. Built as a result of the cooperation between Romania and neighboring Yugoslavia, it has an installed capacity of 2,050 Mw, half of which belongs to the Romanian party.
The Turbine Hall at the Iron Gates
In order to permit an unhampered shipping traffic on the Danube, a sluice was built on either of its banks. They are both provided with upstream and downstream outposts as well as with equipments which are able to ensure lock chamber filling and evacuation operations.
The power plant is also provided with a control tower which helps to regulate and guide sluice traffic.
The sluice lock chamber sizes are in accordance with the recommendations of the Danube Committee for the Lower Danube sector. The Iron Gates I system for navigation and energy production (S.H.E.N.) is the third in Europe, following the hydropower stations on the Volga river.
The Electrical Company Headquarters (ENEL)
A particular problem the municipality had to solve was that of the town power supply. At the very beginning this was ensured by means of casks with water coming from the town fountains and later, from a well that was located in the Radu-Negru square and which was wind powered.
The "RADU NEGRU" Hall
It was only in 1910 that the water plant and the Water Tower started to be erected, the water source being the Danube itself.
The Water Tower
Two of the public-buildings which are emblematic for the town, the Water Tower and the Hall were erected between 1910-1913 and 1904-1906, respectively. The building project of the former belonged to the engineer Elie Radu, while the architecture plants for the latter were drawn up by C.I. Gabrielescu.
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