Old Rheinfelden hydropower plant

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Old Rheinfelden hydropower plant
The old Rheinfelden hydropower plant - the first of its kind
The old Rheinfelden hydropower plant - the first of its kind
location
Old hydropower plant Rheinfelden (Baden-Württemberg)
Old Rheinfelden hydropower plant
Coordinates , ( CH ) 47 ° 33 '55 "  N , 7 ° 48' 7"  O ( 627 336  /  268 352 ) coordinates: 47 ° 33 '55 "  N , 7 ° 48' 7"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred twenty-seven thousand three hundred thirty-six  /  two hundred sixty-eight thousand three hundred fifty-two
country Germany / Baden-Württemberg
place Rheinfelden
Waters Rhine
f1
power plant
operator Energy service
Start of operation 1898
technology
Bottleneck performance 25.7 megawatts
Average
height of fall 		4.2 to 6.0 m
Expansion flow 600 m³ / s
Standard work capacity 185 million kWh / year
Turbines 8 Kaplan turbines
6 propeller turbines
6 Francis turbines
Others
The old power plant seen from the upper water canal, in the foreground the energy dissipation bridge

The old hydropower plant Rheinfelden on the area of ​​the German city Rheinfelden (Baden) was the oldest large river power plant still in existence in Europe. It went into operation in 1898 with 20 turbine sets and an output of ten megawatts, making it the largest European hydropower plant at the time. In April 1894, the canton of Aargau and in May 1898 the Grand Duchy of Baden granted the power plant operators of the time, Kraftverkehrungswerke Rheinfelden (KWR), the necessary concessions for a term of 90 years. The power plant was last operated by Energiedienst . A weir led part of the Rhine into a side canal, and from there into the power plant's machine house . An iron bridge for cyclists and pedestrians connected the German bank with the Swiss town of the same name, Rheinfelden . In 2011 the old power plant was demolished and replaced by the new hydropower plant located a few hundred meters upstream.

description

Seen from the upper water, the power plant was located behind a bend in the Rhine near Beuggen, at the end of a long inlet canal on the inner curve of the river (Gleithang), while the weir dammed the Rhine around 500 meters above the power plant.

The weir was 197.6 meters wide and consisted of eight riflemen on the Swiss side, a raft lane and another three riflemen who were ten meters wide and served as a bottom outlet. They were followed on the Baden side by the upper water canal. At the entrance there was a 50 meter wide computer system. The headwater channel had a bottom slope of 0.6  ‰ . A 200 meter long overflow was arranged along the headwater canal. On the Swiss side next to the first Schütz and between the eighth Schütz and Flossgasse, a fish ladder had been arranged.

The narrow, 150-meter-long structure of the machine house of the hydropower plant was made of rammed concrete , which was clad with yellowish stone . It is noteworthy that, in contrast to the hydropower plants built later, the building did not stand transversely, but rather along the direction of the river for geological and architectural reasons. With the construction technology of the time, the risk that a building across the river could not withstand the enormous water pressure, especially during floods, was still too great. The symmetrical facade was divided into a cantilevered middle section (initially comprising four, later six machine sets) and two side wings. The building was very reminiscent of a palace . To emphasize the special significance of pioneering industrial architecture in such a symbolic and self-confident manner was widespread in the period around 1900 (one speaks of “industrial castles”).

The bridge over the Rhine right next to the machine house was originally intended exclusively for cross-border commuters from Rheinfelden in Aargau, who worked in industrial companies on the Baden side. It consisted of Thomas steel and was closely riveted in a half-timbered manner . The executing company Albert Buss & Cie. from Basel used the same riveting technique that Gustave Eiffel had previously used for his famous tower in Paris. The appearance of the bridge has been retained over the years. It was 210 meters long and roughly in the middle of the border between Germany and Switzerland was a lockable border gate, which in the recent past has been open around the clock. The lattice girders ran parallel to each other over three fields, so they were supported on two concrete pillars in the river.

When the old power plant was built, the main focus was on technical considerations. Less consideration was given to the concerns of nature, at that time there were no officially prescribed compensatory measures for the intervention. Due to the fact that the engine house was on the German bank and not across the Rhine, the ecologically valuable "Gwild", a rock formation in the river bed, was not affected. A fish pass was created at the old power station when it was built around 1900 .

and display information about the image
View from the Swiss bank of the Rhine to the machine house of the old hydropower plant on the German bank with the iron footbridge over the river, in the background the industrial area of ​​Rheinfelden (Baden)

Technical specifications

Installation of the generator turbine sets in the machine house

The machine house had 20 turbine chambers, each 5.5 meters wide, which could be sealed off from the upper water with two revolving gates of 2.75 × 5 meters, from the lower water with draft gates and dam beams.

Originally, 20 eight-crown, vertical-axis Francis turbines with an output of 800 to 1200 hp each were installed in the chambers . Eight three-phase generators (6800 volts, 50 Hertz) and twelve direct current generators (100 to 1800 volts) were directly connected to these as so-called generator turbine sets.

Old power plant New power plant
Expansion water volume 600 m³ / s 1500 m³ / s
Net gradient 4.2-6.0 m 6.0-9.1 m
Installed capacity 25.7 MW 100 MW
Turbine types 8 Kaplan ,
6 propeller and
6 Francis turbines 		4 double-regulated
tubular turbines
Average annual production 185 million kWh 600 million kWh
View inside the power plant in June 2010 - machine 20 in the foreground

The following machine sets were recently installed:

View into the empty upper water channel of the power plant
View into the turbine chambers after the fine screen was demolished: left machine 14 (Francis), right machine 15 (Kaplan)
Machine group Construction year Manufacturer turbine Turbine type Manufacturer generator Type of current kW operator
01 1925/28 Charmilles propeller originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current 1180 KWR (aluminum)
02 1925/28 Charmilles propeller originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current 1180 KWR (aluminum)
03 1925/28 Charmilles propeller originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current 1180 KWR (aluminum)
04 1914 Escher / Wyss Francis originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current 920 KWR (aluminum)
05 1914 Escher / Wyss Francis originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current 920 KWR (aluminum)
06 1925/28 Charmilles propeller originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current 1180 KWR (aluminum)
07 1925/27 Charmilles propeller AEG Three-phase current 1180 KWR
08 1925/27 Charmilles propeller AEG Three-phase current 1180 KWR
09 1897 Escher / Wyss Francis AEG Three-phase current 920 KWR
10 1898 Escher / Wyss Francis AEG Three-phase current 920 KWR
11 1938 Voith Chaplain Three-phase current 2794 KWR
12 1938 Voith Chaplain Three-phase current 2794 KWR
13 1897 Escher / Wyss Francis AEG Three-phase current 920 KWR
14th 1897 Escher / Wyss Francis AEG Three-phase current 920 KWR
15th 1928 Voith Chaplain originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current 1588 KWR (Hüls)
16 1928 Voith Chaplain originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current 1588 KWR (Hüls)
17th 1929 Voith Chaplain MFO originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current KWR (Hüls)
18th 1929 Voith Chaplain MFO originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current KWR (Hüls)
19th 1934 Voith Chaplain originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current KWR (Hüls)
20th 1934 Voith Chaplain originally direct current, later replaced by three-phase current KWR (Hüls)

In addition, the power plant had two rake cleaning machines for the fine rakes, which disposed of the debris collected through two openings into the underwater. These two flood openings were permanently flushed by the water from the headwater canal. The upper water channel had a bottom outlet regulated by gates.

history

Construction site of the old Rheinfelden hydropower plant

The first plan for a hydropower plant near Rheinfelden was sketched by Georg von Struve, a nephew of the republican revolutionary Gustav Struve , as early as 1872 and in 1873 he received a concession for the project, which was extended in 1875. However, Struve died in 1876 and his plan for a nacelle on the Swiss side was never carried out. The power plant was built according to plans by the civil engineer Conradin Zschokke . This made Zschokke a pioneer in Swiss hydropower plants. The power plant was also the first low-pressure hydropower plant in the world. Around 700 workers helped build the hydropower plant and built an 800 meter long canal parallel to the Rhine. A weir, about 360 meters long, was built across the river. Construction of the power plant began in November 1895 and was fully completed in June 1899.

The license of the Grand Duchy of Baden was granted on May 2, 1894, that of the Canton of Aargau on August 21, 1894. The concession was limited to 90 years on the Swiss side, with subsequent transfer of the parts of the plant located in the canton to the Canton of Aargau free of charge. The Grand Duchy's concession was unlimited. On October 20, 1902, an increase in the weir was approved and on October 2, 1915, an increase in the rifle.

With the construction of the power station, many energy-intensive factories such as the aluminum and chemical industries settled in Rheinfelden in Baden. In Rheinfelden in Aargau, too, industrialization began with power plant construction. During the First World War , on October 16, 1916, the power plant narrowly escaped an attack. Three French secret agents planned to blow up the facility; however, the explosive device detonated too early. As a result of the attack, the Swiss and Baden military authorities agreed a secret agreement on joint surveillance.

As early as 1984, the operator of the power transmission plant in Rheinfelden (KWR) and the canton of Aargau wanted to build a new power plant on the site of the original one. Due to the liberalization of the electricity market, the new building no longer appeared profitable and was therefore postponed. In December 1989 the Swiss Federal Council and the Freiburg Regional Council had to decide whether to extend the license for another 80 years. This was approved with the condition that a new power plant had to achieve higher electricity production. Since this was no longer possible with the old power plant, a new hydropower plant was built. The demolition of the old hydropower plant was provided for in the building permit.

Technical history significance

In the machine house: the three-phase generators (around 1900)
Close-up of a three-phase generator (around 1900)

The structure and its technology are considered of great international importance for the history of the use of electricity and renewable energies. The plant was the oldest still existing large hydropower plant in Europe, at the same time it was the first large low-pressure hydropower plant in the world. Since the world's first large hydropower plant, the Adams Powerhouse No. 1 in Niagara Falls / USA no longer exists, the system in Rheinfelden was the oldest large hydropower plant in the world until it was demolished. Two of the machine sets (turbines and generators are directly coupled) worked for over 100 years. At the Rheinfelden hydropower plant, three-phase alternating current ( three-phase alternating current ) with a frequency of 50  Hz was generated for the first time on an industrial scale , which is now the standard almost worldwide. The generator assembly in Rheinfelden was personally supervised by Michail Doliwo-Dobrowolsky in 1898 . The Rheinfelden power plant was also the nucleus of today's European electricity network : in 1905, due to an accident at the Wangen power plant on the Aare, electricity was delivered there; from 1906 there were counter-deliveries to the Rheinfelden power plant, which was the first time in Europe that lines from two power plants in different supply areas were interconnected. On May 10, 1903, the electricity sales cooperative Waldelektra was founded to drive the machines, especially looms, of the Hotzenwald house industry. The implementation of the pipeline network was entrusted to AEG . A supply contract for three-phase current with 6000 volts linked voltage was concluded with the power plant for 10 years. Due to the terrain and the weather, it was initially difficult to get a grip on electricity deliveries, and the workers' rejection of the "new" was great, but from 1909 the number of customers rose steadily.

Controversy about the demolition of the power plant

Despite this high technical and historical importance, the demolition of the old machine house and the iron walkway was planned after the construction of the new power plant. According to Baden-Württemberg's monument protection law, power plant construction certainly had the quality of a monument. However, since the fish pass, which was intended to compensate for the interference caused by the new construction in the natural balance, could only be implemented at the location of the old power plant and the approval process did not yet see the possibility of passing this bypass water under part of the old machine house, the building was then used as a classified not obtainable. As a consequence, it was - contrary to a technical opinion of the State Office of Historic Monuments - not by the Government of Freiburg in the Monument Register registered, so it could get a higher level of protection than "normal monuments" in accordance with § 12 of the Baden-Württemberg Monument Protection Act.

Demolition remains of the old power plant in March 2011

After a final joint hearing of representatives of the municipalities and environmental associations involved on both sides of the Rhine, as well as the power plant operator Energiedienst and the binational monument protection initiative IG Pro Steg on June 21, 2010, Freiburg's regional president Julian Würtenberger decided that no moratorium was legally possible and that the machine house and the power plant walkway would have to be demolished in autumn 2010. On July 14, 2010 the IG Pro Steg initiative submitted identical petitions for a moratorium to the petitions committee of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament and the petitions committee of the German Bundestag . The Association of Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE) sent another petition to the Bundestag .

On July 27, 2010, Energiedienst finally shut down the power plant's generators, and then began to drain and fill the inlet channel.

At the beginning of August 2010 the IG Pro Steg initiative, with the support of the international monument protection organizations ICOMOS and TICCIH, submitted an application to the European department of UNESCO in Paris for the hydroelectric power plant to be included in the tentative list of future world cultural heritage sites . However, the application did not have any direct suspensive effect on the demolition plans.

On November 3, 2010, the iron footbridge was closed to passenger traffic and the demolition of the same began, as was the demolition of the porter's house.

In July 2012, the Kraftwerk 1898 exhibition pavilion was opened near the former power station site , in which, in addition to some display boards, machine 10 of the power station can also be viewed. Together with three viewing platforms, the pavilion is part of the Rheinufer-Rundweg.

Trivia

In the German version of the game Monopoly , the old power plant represents the waterworks.

Awards

On September 25, 2014, the old run-of-river power plant was honored with the Milestone from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) based in New York. The award came about through the "Pro-Steg" initiative.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Altes Wasserkraftwerk Rheinfelden  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New hydropower plant Rheinfelden on the grid until 2011 , on udo-leuschner.de
  2. ↑ a b Swiss Water Management Association and Association of Swiss Electricity Companies (ed.): Guide through the Swiss water and electricity industry , Volume 2, 1949, p. 652
  3. ^ Karl Gotsch: Bridges over the High Rhine from Constance to Basel
  4. ↑ Figure in: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, advanced training course "Water and Environment" (Ed.): Continuity and habitat modeling of flowing waters. Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, 1st edition, Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-86068-413-9 , p. 44.
  5. ↑ ! Force field! Old power station Rheinfelden (Baden) Conservation goals and possible uses (PDF; 669 kB), at ig-pro-steg.com
  6. ↑ s. Bocks (Markgräflerland), p. 49
  7. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Information on the old Rheinfelden power plant (PDF) Page 2@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ohm-hochschule.de
  8. ^ Aargau State Archives : Photographs on power plant construction
  9. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Information on the old Rheinfelden power plant (PDF) page 4@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ohm-hochschule.de
  10. ↑ Electricity generation costs would be too high: KWR does without a new hydropower plant , on udo-leuschner.de
  11. ↑ Leopold Döbele, Die Hausindustrie des Hotzenwaldes , 1929, p. 50
  12. ↑ Old power plant: Monument preservers increase the pressure , Badische Zeitung, Rheinfelden edition, May 26, 2010.
  13. ↑ Bernward Janzing : Power plant should become a cultural asset . In: taz , January 13, 2008
  14. ↑ No moratorium possible - demolition of the Rheinfelden power plant is coming , Badische Zeitung, June 22, 2010
  15. ^ Rheinfelden power plant: IG Pro Steg submits petitions , Badische Zeitung, July 25, 2010
  16. ↑ Energy service shuts down old power plant , Badische Zeitung, Rheinfelden edition, July 28, 2010
  17. ↑ The old Rheinfelden hydropower plant remains out of operation , press release from Energiedienst AG, July 29, 2010
  18. ↑ Old hydropower plant - a candidate for a World Heritage Site? , Badische Zeitung, Rheinfelden edition, August 12, 2010
  19. ↑ Higher gradient and greater flow rates , in: FAZ of January 18, 2011
  20. ↑ energiedienst.de: "Kraftwerk 1898" exhibition pavilion , accessed on September 9, 2012
  21. ^ Jannik Schall: Rheinfelden: The eye-catcher attracts visitors , Badische Zeitung, August 15, 2012, accessed on September 9, 2012
  22. ↑ Old hydropower plant Rheinfelden awarded the first IEEE Milestone in Germany . In: Energy Service . ( energiedienst.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
  23. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgart, Germany: Rheinfelden hydropower plant: A milestone that is no longer there . In: stuttgarter-zeitung.de . ( stuttgarter-zeitung.de [accessed June 20, 2018]).
The next bridge upstream:
Ryburg-Schwörstadt power plant 		Bridges over the Rhine The next bridge down the river:
Alte Rheinbrücke Rheinfelden