Kubel power plant
| Kubel power plant | |||
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| Coordinates | 742.4 thousand / 251700 | ||
| country | Switzerland , St. Gallen | ||
| Data | |||
| power | 13.45 MW | ||
| operator | St. Gallisch-Appenzellische Kraftwerke AG | ||
| Start of operations | October 19, 1900 | ||
| particularities | First storage power plant in Switzerland | ||
The hydropower plant Kubel is located in the southwest of the city of St. Gallen and was the first storage power station of Switzerland . The Kubelwerk is the largest power station of the St. Gallisch-Appenzellische Kraftwerke AG. The annual electricity production is 32.39 GWh .
history
At the current location of the Kubel power plant there was an old paper mill that was already using the power of the water of the Urnäsch and the Sitter . Around 1895 the engineer Louis Kürsteiner presented a plan to collect the water from these rivers in Gübsenmoos and use it to generate electricity through underground tunnels . The resulting Gübsensee was the first reservoir with a gravity dam in Switzerland.
With the establishment of Elektrizitätswerk Kubel AG on April 18, 1898, a sponsorship for the realization of this project was formed. Construction work began in September 1898 and on October 19, 1900, the plant produced electrical energy for the first time . It consisted of four groups of machines, each with 500 HP installed power. At first only the water of the Urnäsch was used. The production capacity of the power plant should be gradually adapted to the increasing electricity consumption.
By 1907 the power station had been expanded four times, with two steam turbines being installed. The hydraulic power was now 8,700 HP and the power of the steam engines to ensure the power supply at low water was 4,000 HP. In 1910, all shares in Kraftwerk Kubel AG were taken over by the city of St. Gallen and the plant went into public hands. From August 1914 to May 1918, the Sitter tunnel was built parallel to the Urnäsch tunnel to increase capacity. Until then, the Sitterstollen flowed into the Urnäschstollen after the siphon.
Takeover by St. Gallisch-Appenzellische Kraftwerke AG
The founding contract of the St. Gallisch-Appenzellische Kraftwerke AG from 1914 stipulated that the Kubelwerk with all rights and obligations was to be transferred to their property.
Between 1916/18 a pressure tunnel was built from Gübsensee to the Kubelwerk. In 1931/33 three diesel engine systems (Sulzer, Winterthur) with a total output of 22,200 hp were installed because the old steam engines had been dismantled. These three diesel engine systems were then the largest such systems in Europe . The hydraulic power was increased from 8,700 hp to 26,200 hp by 1937.
The Kubelwerk was in need of repair and prone to failure. In 1972 the construction of a cavern with three Francis turbines began , which was put into operation in 1976 and inaugurated on May 17, 1977. The three machine groups are controlled fully automatically. An automatic start-up brings the turbines to their nominal speed and connects the generators in parallel with the distribution network . The available output increased by 30% to 13.45 MW and the average annual output by 10% to 3.88 MW. At the end of 1983, the renovation of the building was finished after the homeland security concerns . The old hydraulic systems and the diesel engine systems were dismantled. The vacant buildings are not only used for museum purposes today. The auxiliary companies that are required for the operation and maintenance of the production and distribution systems are set up in them.
In 1928 the Gübsen Society was founded, which campaigned for nature around the Gübsensee. Thanks to their close cooperation with the SAK and the concerns of homeland and nature conservation, the area around the Gübsensee was able to develop into a nature reserve and recreation area .
literature
- 75 years of St.Gallisch-Appenzellische Kraftwerke AG 1914-1989, printing: Ernst Schoop AG, Urnäsch Published by the SAK on the occasion of its 75th anniversary.