Chiotas-Piastra Pumped Storage Scheme - Italy The annular tunnel is connected to the small shaft and to the headrace

tunnel at two opposite locations. The Chiotas - Piastra pumped storage scheme in the Italian Alps close to the French border, some 100 km south of Turin, consists of the upper lake of Chiotas (volume 27.3 million m, max. level at 1,978 m), the underground power house of Entracque and the remaining part being resisted by the rock. The transition zones are very complex and the cable layout is fairly spectacular. Here tendons of the VSL types E-ZU-E 6-6, H-ZU-H 6-6 and post-tensioned lining in order to guarantee tightness. The vertical shafts were constructed using VSL slip forms. The main shaft is horizontally posttensioned by means of VSL cables EE 6-12 (ultimate force 3 000 [kN]) the lower lake of Piastra (volume 9 million m, min. level at 930 m). The maximum head is thus 1,048 m with the distance between the lakes only about 8 km, an ideal situation for a pumped storage scheme. The surge chamber at the end of the headrace tunnel consists of a main shaft of 13 m internal diameter, of a small shaft of 6.10 m internal diameter and of an annular tunnel. The power plant Luigi Einaudi (Chiotas) is the biggest pump storage plant in Italy and one of the largest in Europe with 1,200 installed MW. It consists of 8 units with turbine flow=16 m/s and pump flow=15.2 m/s. Turbine head=122.3 m and Pump head = 113.5 m.