Harkort power plant

Harkort power plant
Harkort power plant on the upper ditch of the Ruhr
location
Coordinates	51 ° 22 '45 "  N , 7 ° 23' 31"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 22 '45 "  N , 7 ° 23' 31"  E
country	NRW , Germany
place	Weather (Ruhr)
Waters	Dysentery
Height upstream	89  m
power plant
owner	Ruhrverband
operator	RWE
construction time	1907/08? -190? (Renovation and new building 19 ?? - 1931)
Start of operation	19 ??
Listed since	June 16, 1986
technology
Bottleneck performance	6.1 or 6.6 megawatts
Average height of fall	7.8 m
Expansion flow	120 m³ / s
Standard work capacity	24 million kWh / year
Turbines	3 Kaplan turbines
Others
was standing	October 2012

The Harkort power plant (also known as the Wetter power plant ) is a hydropower plant on the Ruhr just below the Harkortsee in the city of Wetter (Ruhr) in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was originally built at the beginning of the 20th century to generate energy for a neighboring industrial company. For the damming of the Harkortsee in 1931, large parts of the old power plant were replaced by a new one. Today's power plant belongs to the Ruhrverband and is operated by RWE as part of the Koepchenwerk . The turbine house of the power plant is on Wetter's list of monuments and is the location of the Route of Industrial Culture and the Märkische Straße Technical Cultural Monuments .

The power plant is not named after the industrial pioneer Friedrich Harkort , as is often assumed, but after the Schöntaler Stahl- und Eisenwerke Peter Harkort & Sohn , founded in 1779 , who had the plant built and was managed by Hermann Harkort at the time of construction .

investment

The Harkort power plant is designed as a diversion power plant - a special form of run- of -river power plant - with an integrated lock . It is with Ruhr water through a 800 m long Ausleitgraben ( Obergraben powered), in addition to the dam begins at the end of Harkortsees and from the actual clock path through the so-called Ruhr island is separated. A good 160 m below the power plant, the artificial river, known as the Untergraben , reunites with the Ruhr. The current course of the trench goes back to a historic mill trench , which was later expanded into a factory canal .

The Harkortsee above the power plant also functions as a compensation basin for the Koepchenwerk , which is located a few kilometers upstream on the Hengsteysee . Due to the pumped storage operation there, the water levels of the Hengstey and Harkortsee fluctuate regularly during the day and the water inflow to the Harkortsee is irregular. From the Harkortsee, however, an even amount of water is released into the Ruhr again over the day via the Harkort power plant and the Harkortsee weir.

The weir of the Harkortsee is a roller weir with four rollers. It is located in the Wetteran city area directly under the Ruhr Bridge between Alt-Wetter and Hagen - Vorhalle ( B-226 -Straßenbrücke, Friedrichstraße). The actual course of the Ruhr, on which the Volmarstein community waterworks is located , follows below the weir . Most of the water from the Harkortsee is fed to the power plant via the Obergraben; Only a minimum amount of water is regularly supplied to the old Ruhr .

history

Already in the 14th century there was a water- powered corn mill , de alde Möle (the old mill), near the current power station location, in the so-called Mühlenfeld am Schöntal . In 1360 the Counts von der Mark acquired the mill from the Lords of Volmarstein .

At the beginning of the 19th century the mill lost its importance; In 1817, as part of the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the mill compulsion was lifted. Then the Schöntaler Stahl- und Eisenwerke acquired the area and used the mill building as a grinding shop for several decades until it was demolished in 1899.

A few years later, the company began planning its own hydropower plant on the old mill site. In 1881 an office building had already been built there, in which u. a. In 1904 a director's room for Hermann Harkort was designed according to a design by the Flemish artist Henry van de Velde . The Art Nouveau furnishing of the room is now in Herdecke on Gut Schede , an estate of the Harkort family. Shortly afterwards, in 1907/08, the design contract for a 51 m long and 10 m high turbine house adjoining the office building went to the architect Bruno Taut , who was known to the Hagen art patron Karl Ernst Osthaus . In the following years, the Harkort power plant was finally built and commissioned. It originally had four turbines and generators , which together produced around 1.2 MW. There was space for a further reserve turbine.

In the 1920s, the Ruhrverband began work on the damming of the Ruhr between Herdecke and Wetter for the Harkortsee, which was completed in 1931 . The works ditch to the power plant was expanded and straightened, the dike ( dam ) was reinforced and the old Harkort power plant was replaced by a longer new building with more powerful machines by 1931. Only the turbine house with its facade made of embossed Ruhr sandstone blocks was largely preserved. Over the years, however, the facade has been somewhat redesigned; it is no longer in its original condition.

In 1986 the turbine house was placed under monument protection as local monument No. 117 .

In 2004 a fish pass was built on the south side of the power plant . It is a near-natural bypass stream that overcomes a height difference of 5.3 m with the help of 57 individual pools over a length of around 380 m. In addition to the fish pass, there is also the 230 m long transfer route for water hikers .

See also

• List of hydropower plants in Germany

Individual evidence

1. ^ RWE Innogy : Hydropower plants on the Ruhr and in Siegerland. Endurance runner in energy supply. (PDF; 3.6 MB)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Ruhrverband : reservoirs, fish ladders, hydropower plants. (PDF; 7.9 MB) 2008
3. ↑ ^{a b} Ruhr-Wasserwirtschafts-Gesellschaft on behalf of the Ruhr Fisheries Cooperative in Essen: Fish inventory analysis at Harkortsee. (PDF; 2.5 MB) 2005, p. 6
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ruhrverband : Harkortsee.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Route of industrial culture : Harkort power station.
6. ^ ^{A b c} Frank J. Diekmann: Weirs, ponds, water wheels: an atlas of the hydraulic structures in the Hagen area. Ardenku-Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3-932070-14-3 . P. 111
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Hartmut Czeh: Harkort power station, Schöntaler Str. 66. In: Walter Ollenik, Jürgen Uphues (ed.): From mills, locks and turbines. An exciting guide to monuments of the cultural and technological history in the central Ruhr valley. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2004. ISBN 3-89861-375-5 . Pp. 82/83
8. ^ ^{A b} Karl Hebecker: Hiking in weather. Freiherr-vom-und-zum-Stein-Weg. ed. from the city of Wetter (Ruhr), 2012.

Web links

Commons : Kraftwerk Harkort  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Description of all locations on this themed route as part of the Route of Industrial Culture
• Ruhrverband: Data sheet on the "Harkortsee fish climb" at the power plant. (PDF; 229 kB)