Voitsberg steam power plant

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Voitsberg steam power plant
ÖDK III (in 2007)
ÖDK III (in 2007)
location
Voitsberg steam power plant (Styria)
Voitsberg steam power plant
Coordinates 47 ° 3 '5 "  N , 15 ° 8' 0"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 3 '5 "  N , 15 ° 8' 0"  E
country Austria
Data
Type Steam power plant
Primary energy Fossil energy
fuel Brown coal
owner Porr Umwelttechnik GmbH
Start of operations 1953
Shutdown 2006
f2
f2
Voitsberg steam power station 2 km away. The chimney was 180 meters high
Bärnbach + ÖDK III

The Voitsberg steam power plant was a steam power plant in the Styrian municipality of Voitsberg . Over time, three power plant blocks were built here. It was operated with brown coal from mines in the Voitsberg district , which the GKB ( Graz-Köflacher Railway and Mining Company ) mined. The power plant originally belonged to Österreichische Draukraftwerke AG , hence the name ÖDK for the plants. In 2000 this company was merged into the newly founded Verbund Österreichische Elektrizitätswirtschafts-AG . The demolition of the power plant began in 2013; on August 8, 2015, after four days of inclined position, the 180 m high chimney fell. On November 8, 2015, the remaining part of the structure was to be blown up. The demolition was carried out by experts from the demolition service training group of the Austrian Armed Forces . For the armed forces it was the largest building demolition in the Second Republic. 666 kilograms of explosives are said to have been used for the 15,400-tonne structure. The demolition failed, the tower on the side of the building and the central building fell, but the main part remained standing.

However, the second demolition on December 20, 2015 was successful.

history

Blocks of the Voitsberg steam power plant
block fuel Power, electric District heating output Installation Shutdown
1 Brown coal ? ? 1953 (1948?) 1983
2 Brown coal ? ? 1956 1985
3 Brown coal 330 MW 45 MW 1983 2006

The first two power plant blocks Voitsberg 1 and Voitsberg 2 were put into operation in 1953 and 1956, respectively. Soil investigations from 1975/1976 revealed unexploited lignite deposits amounting to 31 million tons in the Oberdorf near Voitsberg area. On this basis, the decision was made to build a new, larger power plant block called Voitsberg 3 . This block went into operation in 1983. The total investment was 4.5 billion schillings, converted and adjusted for inflation around 713 million euros. The power plant block had a generator output of 330 MW and a heat extraction of 35 MW from a turbine tap plus 10 MW, which were obtained from the waste heat of the cooler . In parallel with the commissioning of Voitsberg 3 was Voitsberg 1 shut down. In 1985, block Voitsberg 2 was also closed . In 1986, with the second expansion stage of Voitsberg 3, a flue gas desulphurization system was put into operation, which resulted in a 90 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions .

The liberalization of the electricity market in 2001 made the Voitsberg lignite power station and the lignite mining located there unprofitable. To compensate for this, a subsidy was paid out until June 30, 2006, which was financed by end consumers in Austria via a surcharge on the electricity bill under the name Stranded Costs .

After the operator no longer saw the power plant operate economically due to declining coal deposits and the associated higher costs for their development, it was shut down in 2006.

In summer 2008 the industrialist Mirko Kovats bought the plant. It was to be put back into operation as a hard coal power station.

A citizens' initiative fought against the restart and for the holding of an environmental impact assessment (EIA). Despite serious environmental problems (the power plant was located in a particulate matter remediation area , which already has one of the highest cancer mortality rates in Austria), the responsible authority decided against an EIA in the first instance. The environmental lawyer of the state of Styria and the local communities appealed against this decision. In the summer of 2010, the appeals were rejected by the Environment Senate, since according to Austrian law only the increase in fuel heat output, but not the effects on the environment, had to be examined.

On October 22nd, 2010 the industrialist Mirko Kovats announced a restructuring procedure for his company, the A-Tec Industries group, which is putting it back into operation, because he was unable to refinance an outstanding bond of 91 million euros.

On May 3, 2011 it became known that A-Tec and Mirko Kovats had withdrawn the application for the power plant to be restarted. A deadline set by the Province of Styria to remedy defects could not be met. The massive resistance from citizens' initiatives, environmental organizations and various political parties led to a rethink in the entire state government and should therefore have had a significant impact on A-Tec's decision.

On May 12, 2011, a report by the then Deputy Governor Schützenhöfer was published, from which it emerges that commissioning the power plant would destroy hundreds of jobs in tourism (Lipizzaner, thermal baths). As a result, the only argument of the power plant proponents, namely that the power plant creates jobs, was taken ad absurdum. Politicians now acted unanimously against the power plant, which prevented it from going into operation.

cancellation

The power plant was up for sale for a long time. There was one interested party, but he did not want to make an offer until all notices regarding demolition and dismantling were available. The costs for the bankruptcy estate amounted to around 100,000 euros per month. From the perspective of February 2012, the sales proceeds should amount to a maximum of 10 million euros.

In January 2013, Porr Umwelttechnik GmbH bought the power plant for four million euros. Porr began demolishing the plant in early 2013, recycling the materials (non-ferrous metals, scrap steel, various plant components, etc.) and will then sell the property. While Blocks I and II were being recycled, Porr sold Block III to Romanian investors. Block III is being dismantled due to its very good state of preservation.

In May 2014 it was announced that the demolition work would be delayed until the end of 2015, as significantly more components of the power plant can be recycled than expected, which means more careful and therefore more protracted work.

On December 17, 2014, there was a fire while welding work on the ÖDK 3 lignite power plant. A worker tried to cut through metal with a gas welding device, and the rubber boiler wall cladding caught fire. There was no damage to persons or property.

On January 13, 2015, while work was being carried out at a height of 40 m on the ÖDK 3 lignite power station, there was another fire on the insulation material, probably due to welding work. Despite a large column of smoke, there was no local injury or property damage. The 54 m lifting platform of the Graz fire brigade was used for the extinguishing work .

The city of Voitsberg announced in February 2015 that it intends to acquire the property together with a project developer.

The inside of the cooling tower of Block 3 was first freed from 2,500 t of asbestos cement panels (their dust is carcinogenic) - by manual dismantling and by truck crane. Instead of the usual blasting, weaknesses in the support structure and / or costly crane assembly, the tower was demolished using a new type of rope pulling method. For this purpose, the reinforced concrete jacket, which is only 16 cm thick, was provided with around 20 vertical slots in a zone from 10 to 22% of its height in order to weaken it in a targeted manner while still ensuring its stability. This work was done using chisels with a 20 m long-front demolition excavator in order to keep the operator at a safe distance. Then a 200 m long steel cable was laid around the weakened zone, pulled on the cable with 2 demolition excavators (each with an operating weight of 40 to 65 t) and the tower was broken in and torn down near its base. So he fell a little diagonally, but essentially in himself. The spread of the materials was limited to a maximum of 20 m around the cooling tower basin, the vibrations remained lower than required, the method here was safe, economical and fast.

On Tuesday, August 4, 2015, when the steel pipe was dismantled in the chimney at 5:30 a.m., there was an explosion and the 180 m high tower was tilted. According to Porr, this was a “mild form of a pyrotechnic process”, but “no detonation” at the base of the tower. The demolition company Porr did not immediately report this to the community, rather Mayor Meixner only found out about the situation in the afternoon. As a precaution, the nearby bypass road was closed on August 4th. Since the power plant site is largely located in the "extended water protection area", blasting with the fall of the chimney was originally ruled out and nibbling off the reinforced concrete tower piece by piece from above was only planned in autumn as the last part of the power plant.

Porr informed about the incident on August 5th as follows: “During the preparations for dismantling the chimney, the foundation plinth was damaged during work on the inside of the chimney.” The chimney is now crooked and must be torn down much earlier than planned. The area was closed after the incident in coordination with the construction coordinator and the labor inspector. In a first step, the chimney was brought into the correct direction of fall using pyrotechnics on Tuesday.

The tower was weakened at the base by chiseling out concrete between the bars of the reinforcing steel and was blown up at the base on the morning of August 8th. The road was opened again.

The demolition of the remaining components was planned for Sunday, November 8, 2015, 3:30 pm. The stairwell and a central part of the building fell. The 100 m high boiler house remained against the intention.

Second explosion

On December 20, 2015, 2:20 p.m. - the fog had delayed the detonation by 20 minutes - the entire body of the building fell through the detonation.

The clearance work lasted until September 2016.

Reuse of the site

In preparation for a subsequent use of the site, the soil and groundwater are currently (November 2016) being examined for possible contamination.

In order to be able to use the area for the settlement of companies, the creation of flood protection is necessary. Negotiations are planned for December 2016 in order to obtain co-financing from the federal government.

The current owner Porr AG would like to sell the area to the municipality of Voitsberg by mid-2017, which is again looking for a 50% co-investor. The use is planned as an industrial and commercial area. In any case, the warehouse should be located there.

Web links

Commons : Kraftwerk Voitsberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Porr is allowed to scrap the Voitsberg coal-fired power station. der Standard, January 8, 2013, accessed January 12, 2013 .
  2. ↑ http://steiermark.orf.at/news/stories/2725457/ “Schiefer Turm” fallen from Voitsberg, ORF.at August 8, 2015, accessed August 10, 2015.
  3. ↑ orf.at - end for 15,400 tonne structure - 666 kilograms of explosives for a power plant . Article dated November 7, 2015, accessed November 8, 2015.
  4. ↑ orf.at - Voitsberg explosion apparently went wrong . Article dated November 8, 2015, accessed November 8, 2015.
  5. ↑ orf.at - Voitsberg: The blasting of the power plant failed . Article dated November 8, 2015, accessed November 8, 2015.
  6. ↑ http://orf.at/stories/2308188/2308182/ End for 15,400-tonne structure, orf.at, November 8, 2015
  7. ^ Josef Pröll, September 2, 2008
  8. ^ Article ( Memento of November 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) of the Kleine Zeitung of July 31, 2008
  9. ↑ Insolvent A-Tec withdrew requests to convert to hard coal. Der Standard, May 3, 2011
  10. ↑ Power plant "destroys" jobs. Kleine Zeitung , May 11, 2011, archived from the original on August 11, 2014 .;
  11. ↑ A-Tec Industries AG interim report 1st quarter 2012 ( Memento from January 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1 MB)
  12. ↑ Pariasek Holper Rechtsanwälte, agreement dated February 23, 2012, point 2.1 Voitsberg power plant ( Memento of the original dated February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.anwaltwien.at
  13. ↑ Porr is allowed to scrap the Voitsberg coal-fired power station. Der Standard, January 8, 2013, accessed January 12, 2013 .
  14. ↑ The capital increase should make Porr more attractive. der Standard, April 12, 2013, accessed April 13, 2013 .
  15. ^ Leo Himmelbauer: Porr sells Voitsberg III to Romania. Wirtschaftsblatt, March 19, 2014, archived from the original on March 21, 2014 ; Retrieved July 26, 2014 .
  16. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKgUu5OMnfA Marcel Wintscher: Heavy transport at ÖDK 3 in Rosental, youtube.com Video 2:03 min, March 10, 2015. Accessed August 10, 2015. Heavy road transport of the packed runner the steam turbine
  17. ↑ orf.at - "Demolition of the Voitsberg power plant is delayed"
  18. ↑ http://www.kleinezeitung.at/s/steiermark/chronik/4637085/Bei-Abbrucharbeiten_Spektakulaerer-Brand-in-Kraftwerk- Spectacular fire in Kraftwerk, kleinezeitung.at, January 13, 2015
  19. ↑ http://www.kleinezeitung.at/s/steiermark/weststeier/peak_weststeier/4667873/Voitsberg_Stadt-Voitsberg-kauf-ODKGrund City of Voitsberg buys the ÖDK area with a partner, kleinezeitung.at, February 21, 2015
  20. ↑ http://worldofporr.porr-group.com/index.php?id=5183#/page/7 Innovative demolition concept cooling tower (rope pull method), in: Dipl.-Ing. Martin Taborsky: Demolition of the Voitsberg steam power plant, blocks 1–3. http://worldofporr.porr-group.com/ pp. 8–10 (series of images). Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  21. ↑ http://steiermark.orf.at/news/stories/2724949/ Voitsberg: Danger from "leaning tower"? ORF.at August 5, 2015
  22. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fre_RA9CuwE Wolfgang Zoehrer: This is how the leaning tower of Voitsberg was created, youtube.com, video 0:35 min. August 4, 2015 (PST daylight saving time = UTC-7h). Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  23. ↑ http://www.krone.at/Oesterreich/Das_ist_der_Schiefe_Turm_von_Voitsberg-Panne_bei_Rueckbau-Story-465861 AG / Red: Breakdown during dismantling: This is the "Leaning Tower of Voitsberg", krone.at, August 5, 2015, 4:29 pm. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  24. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkQh33_-ddk Dee Jay: ÖDK Voitsberg - The last hours before the fall, youtube.com, video 0:58 min, August 7, 2015. Accessed August 10 2015. - Aerial.
  25. ↑ http://www.kleinezeitung.at/s/steiermark/weststeier/peak_weststeier/4795029/Voitsberg_Der-schiefe-Turm-ist-gefallen- Voitsberg: The "crooked" tower has fallen, Kleine Zeitung, August 8, 2015
  26. ↑ http://orf.at/stories/2308188/2308182/ End for 15,400-tonne structure, orf.at, November 8, 2015
  27. ^ Ö1-Radio, December 20, 2015, 3:01 pm
  28. ↑ Voitsberg power plant: Re-use still open orf.at, November 8, 2016, accessed November 8, 2016.
  29. ^ Groundbreaking ceremony at the former ÖDK site - steiermark.ORF.at. Retrieved February 15, 2018 .