Hydropower Plant Expansion in Germany Could Add 200 Megawatts of Peaking Energy

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--German energy provider EnBW Kraftwerke (Stuttgart, Germany), a subsidiary of EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG (Karlsruhe, Germany), plans to expand and modernize the company's Rudolf-Fettweis-Werk hydropower station in Forbach in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The plant began operating in 1926 and has a total energy output of about 70 megawatts (MW). A study performed by the company shows that the site conditions are optimal to expand the utility by constructing an additional pumped-storage station.

The existing powerhouse contains the so-called Murgwerk, which has five Francis turbines with a combined energy output of 22 MW. The Schwarzenbachwerk at the same site is a pumped-storage facility and contains two 26-MW Pelton turbines that use the Schwarzenbach storage lake as the higher reservoir. The lake's 14 million-cubic-meter cubic meter volume is enough to feed two more reversible hydro turbines, which could add an additional 200 MW of power, according the study.

If the expansion is realized, the equalizing reservoir in Forbach could be expanded to a subterranean, lower reservoir, while Lake Schwarzenbach is used as the upper one. Another alternative is the construction of a new upper reservoir on one of the neighboring mountain ranges.

The project is in a very preliminery state, and construction is expected to start in 2015 at the very earliest. The expanded plant would have a total energy output of 270 MW and could be operational by 2019. EnBW Kraftwerke AG will invest 250 million euros ($317 million) in the project.

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