Wölfersheim power plant
| Wölfersheim lignite power station | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| location | |||
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| Coordinates | 50 ° 23 '47 " N , 8 ° 49' 46" E | ||
| country | Germany | ||
| Waters | Wölfersheimer See (as a cooling pool ) | ||
| Data | |||
| Type | coal-fired power station | ||
| Primary energy | Fossil energy | ||
| fuel |
Lignite ( Wetterau lignite district ) |
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| power | Max. 124 MW (electric) | ||
| operator | 1927–1930: HEFRAG from 1930: PREAG (PreußenElektra) |
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| Start of operations | 1913 | ||
| Shutdown | 1991 | ||
| Chimney height | 1 × 100 m + 2 × 50 m |
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The Wölfersheim power station was a coal-fired power station near Wölfersheim in Hesse . It was operated from 1913 to 1991 with lignite from the pits in the surrounding Wetterau district .
history
The overland plant (1913–1927)
The mining of lignite in the Wetterau, which is poor in forests and therefore poor in firewood, dates back to the beginning of the 19th century, but the coal was initially only used as domestic fuel and for local small businesses. With the onset of electrification at the beginning of the 20th century, coal became particularly interesting for electricity generation .
In 1913, the Grand Duchy of Hesse had the first power plant built in Wölfersheim in the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt . This power plant with the modest output of only 2.6 megawatts for later conditions was the nucleus of the Oberhessen overland plant , today's OVAG . To supply the power station, several underground pits were opened in Wölfersheim and the surrounding area (near Weckesheim and Gettenau ) .
The Schwelkraftwerk (1927–1954)
For the purpose of financing an expansion of the location, the city of Frankfurt founded a joint venture with Preußische Elektrizitäts AG (PREAG) in 1927 , the Braunkohlen-Schwel-Kraftwerk-Hessen-Frankfurt AG (HEFRAG) . The aim was to convert the power plant into a smoldering power plant , a combination of a power plant and a smoldering plant . Construction work began that same year, and less than two years later, in 1929, the Schwelkraftwerk went into operation.
After just one year of operation, in 1930, PREAG (later PreußenElektra ) took over all shares in HEFRAG from the city of Frankfurt in exchange for its own shares and now operated the plant under sole control.
In order to cover the increasing demand of the significantly larger power plant, further underground pits (near Melbach , Wohnbach , Heuchelheim and Trais-Horloff ) and the first two opencast mines (near Wölfersheim and Trais-Horloff) were opened.
Most of the smoldering products (smoldering tar , benzene , medium and light oil ) from the plant were sent by rail tank wagons for further processing to the central German petrochemical industry , in particular to the Leunawerke . With the division of Germany after the Second World War, Leuna ceased to be the most important customer, so that the continued operation of the smoldering power plant was not worthwhile and it was shut down in 1954.
The thermal power station (1954–1991)
The site was then rebuilt and expanded again, this time to a dust-fired thermal power station . In 1954, two units with 27 MW each (electric) went into operation, in 1962 another unit with 58 MW went into operation, so that the power plant had an effective peak output of 112 MW (124 MW installed), with one of the two smaller units always in reserve so that the actually used power was only about 85 MW.
From 1962 the coal for the power plant was only extracted from open-cast mining, the underground shafts were thrown out. For this purpose, new fields (I to VII) were gradually opened up and charred. In the 1980s, the economically recoverable supplies were slowly exhausted. In 1981 and 1984 the two smaller units (27 MW) were taken out of service. On September 30, 1991 the last coal train rolled and after the stockpile had been used up, the last block (58 MW) was shut down forever at the end of October 1991.
After decommissioning, the plant was completely demolished in the mid-1990s. The 100 and 50 meter high chimneys, which for over 40 years had dominated the cityscape as the tallest structures in Wölfersheim, were blown up in January 1996 and the company premises were recultivated .
Today only remnants of the cooling water irrigation system in Wölfersheimer See, some railway vehicles erected as a monument and the switch house belonging to the power plant, now used as a museum, remind of the long-standing power plant operation (see below) . In addition, there is an OVAG open-air substation south between the train station and the former power plant site, which is now only connected by two high-voltage lines with a total of two 110-kilovolt systems.
The Wölfersheimer See as a cooling pond
For the cooling that every thermal power plant absolutely needs, a method that is rarely found in Germany was chosen for the Wölfersheim power plant: Lake Wölfersheim was used as a cooling basin . This type of cooling is normally not permitted, as the waste heat input leads to heating of the water, which results in a massive change in the natural ecosystem. In the case of Lake Wölfersheim, use was approved because it is not a natural body of water, but a residual lake from the former Wölfersheim opencast mine that was only subject to water protection to a limited extent.
A curiosity: Due to the heat introduced, the lake was so warm that re-released subtropical ornamental fish from aquariums such as guppies , goldfish , cichlids and various turtles survived permanently as neozoa . After the power reduction (1984) and the successive shutdown of the power plant (1991), these species died out again due to the cooling of the lake.
Works railway
For the transport of coal from the pits and opencast mines to the power plant and for the removal of the ash that accumulates , PREAG operated a mine connection and works railway with a narrow gauge of 900 mm.
The company's own narrow-gauge railway consisted of two routes:
- the northern, approximately 9 km long route from the power plant to the loading point at the Utphe opencast mine (closed in 1984 after the opencast mine was closed)
- the southern, about 6.3 km long route from the power plant to the loading point near Reichelsheim (closed in 1991)
The loading points were served by conveyor belt systems from the surrounding opencast mines . The transport of overburden between the various pits was also carried out using belts. The ashes were used to backfill the charred open pit Heuchelheim; for this there was a track triangle in the middle of the southern route with a connection to the dump.
At the time of the smoldering power plant before the Second World War, steam locomotives were used, later only electric and diesel locomotives :
- Manufacturer Krupp , electric locomotive (type Boe ) with engines from AEG as coal trains and diesel locomotives (type B-dh ) as work trains
- Manufacturer Henschel , electric locomotive (type Boe ) with motors from SSW as ash trains
At the power station there was also a connection to the public rail network with a small, in-house connecting railway in standard gauge .
After the shutdown of operations, the track systems were completely dismantled; some of the locomotives and wagons were erected as memorials (see pictures) .
Wölfersheim Energy Museum
In order to maintain tradition after the shutdown of the power plant and mining operations in Wölfersheim, the Association for the Maintenance of the Mining and Power Plant Tradition was founded in Wölfersheim in 1991 . The members brought together a large collection of memorabilia from their own holdings and from the HEFRAG and PREAG archives.
The collection was initially shown on a small scale in the cellar of the Wölfersheim town hall. As a more suitable location for a large-scale presentation, the association was given rooms in the power station's substation (built in 1932), which is classified as an industrial monument worth preserving . In 2006, the Wölfersheim Energy Museum was set up there as a permanent exhibition . The museum is open weekly on Sundays. Here the association presents exhibits on the history of the Wölfersheim power station and mining in the Wetterau. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the faithful replica of a section of the tunnel made of original pit wood from the area.
In the open air in front of the museum, facing the train station, there are two PREAG works railway locomotives (see above) with attached carts.
In addition to the history of coal, the museum also shows exhibitions on modern energy technology and, in particular, on renewable forms of energy .
literature
- Andreas Matlé: Underground. Over days. Wetterauer brown coal - energy of the past. Memories in words and pictures . Ed .: Upper Hessian Utilities, OVAG Energie AG. OVAG, Friedberg (Hessen) 2010, ISBN 978-3-9812122-6-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f The lignite power station Wölfersheim on www.alexanderhitz.de ( Memento from October 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c When the smoke cleared, there was breakfast first - excerpt from the OVAG magazine of March 27, 2007, online on the website of the Wetterau Economic Development Agency (www.wfg-wetterau.de)
- ↑ a b Lignite mining on www.alexanderhitz.de ( Memento from January 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c d e Lignite mining in the Wetterau. Helmut Rieß and Rudolf Weinelt reported from their experiences in the narrative café. www.hungen.info, archived from the original on August 20, 2010 ; Retrieved April 29, 2011 .
- ↑ Power supply in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century at www.mainova.de ( Memento from October 13, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Open-cast lignite mining at www.alexanderhitz.de ( Memento from February 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Andreas Christopher: Railways in the Wetterau . In: Drehscheibe , issues 127 to 129 (3-5 / 1998), online at www.achristo.homepage.t-online.de
- ↑ a b Andreas Christopher: The PreussenElektra works railways, Wölfersheim , online at www.achristo.homepage.t-online.de
- ↑ Free-living guppy populations in Germany at www.diewasserwelt.de ( Memento from April 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Angelsportverein Wölfersheim and the surrounding area - About us - Club history on www.asv-woelfersheim.de ( Memento from October 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Winfried Barth, Andreas Christopher: Feldbahnen in Hessen . In: Drehscheibe special issue 22 (2002), excerpt online at www.drehscheibe-online.de (PDF; 429 kB)
- ↑ a b Underground in the Wetterau - Article in the FAZ Rhein-Main-Zeitung , online at www.faz.net
- ↑ The Wölfersheim Energy Museum - information sheet, online at www.woelfersheim.de ( Memento from October 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)