Arnstein storage power plant

Arnstein storage power plant
The power house of the power plant
location
Coordinates	47 ° 1 '6 "  N , 15 ° 9' 35"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 1 '6 "  N , 15 ° 9' 35"  E
country	Styria , Austria
place	Voitsberg
Waters	Teigitsch
power plant
owner	VERBUND Hydro Power AG
operator	VERBUND Hydro Power AG
construction time	1922-1925
Start of operation	1925
technology
Bottleneck performance	30 megawatts
Expansion flow	5.5 m³ / s
Standard work capacity	50 million kWh / year
Turbines	3 × Francis turbines
Generators	3 × 13,000 kVA alternators
Others

The storage power station Arnstein is a 1925-built storage plant in the municipality Krottendorf-Gaisfeld in Styria , Austria . It is designed for an output of 30 MW , has an annual production of 50,000 MWh and is a listed building. It can be started in black and, as part of the Teigitsch group, only works during electricity price peaks.

location

The Arnstein storage power plant is located in the lower Teigitschgraben , shortly before the confluence of the Teigitsch and Kainach rivers . The administration building of the power plant is located in the cadastral municipality of Arnstein, which belongs to Voitsberg .

history

On March 30, 1921, the Steirische Wasserkraft- und Elektrizitäts-AG (STEWEAG) was founded with the aim of supplying Styria with electricity generated from run-of-river and storage power plants. STEWEAG's first power plant project was the Arnstein storage power plant. Originally, a competition was to be held among local architects for the design of the high-rise buildings of the power house . Fritz Haas became the executive architect, while the overall planning was taken over by STEWEAG and its planning engineer Hermann Grengg . In the first plans, the power plant had two Pelton turbines , which were later to be expanded by a third. The total output should be 14,740 kW. Overall, great importance was attached to fire safety during the planning, which is why the buildings were largely made of reinforced concrete and the roof trusses of Polonceau iron trusses .

Construction work and the development of the property for the power house began in the spring of 1922. The ramp for the inclined elevator and the penstocks were erected in August 1922. In the same month, the construction pit for the power house was dug. In January 1925, the headrace tunnel was filled with water for test purposes. Trial operation began in February of the same year and on March 25 the 60 kV line between Arnstein and Graz was supplied with electricity for the first time. On March 28, 1925, the storage power plant officially went into operation with an expansion capacity of 21,000 kW.

For the construction work, a 254 m long connecting line was built at the Gaisfeld station of the Graz-Köflacher-Bahn, which led to a reloading point, where the building material was taken over by a field railway with a 60 cm gauge. This track led for 4.3 km to the construction site of the Arnstein power plant. Material for the construction site of the dam wall at a higher level was brought from an inclined elevator (funicular, approx. 650 m long, track width 100 cm) to another narrow-gauge field railway (60 cm track). This stretch led over 6 km to the construction site of the Langmann barrier and to the tunnel entrances for the construction of the pressure tunnel. Field railways with a gauge of 60 cm were also used for the construction of the Pack lock, built later in 1929/30, and the Hierzmann lock built in 1949/50.

After the completion of the power plant, STEWEAG found an additional buyer for the electricity generated in the company Schoeller-Bleckmann-Werke AG Vienna. A 110 kV line between Arnstein, Graz and Mürzzuschlag was built for the transport of electricity and was supplied with electricity for the first time in February 1926. In December 1929, the executive committee of STEWEAG decided to expand the power plant with a machine set and an additional pressure pipe. The expansion began in the spring of 1930. The additional machine set was put into operation in April 1931 and brought an increase in output of 30 MW.

In 1970 the cover of the switch house and in 1931 the cover of the machine house and the connecting passage was renewed. The original plain tiles were replaced with a German double roof. In 1983 the windows and doors and in 1994 the ventilation dormers on the roofs above the transformers were replaced. Also in 1994 two of the three transformers were exchanged. The third transformer was replaced in 2003.

description

The buildings of the power plant are oriented in an approximate east-west direction. In the east the ensemble begins with the power house, on the west side of which the wheelhouse with the control room adjoins at a right angle. A connecting corridor leads from the wheelhouse to the two switchhouse wings with the switchgear . There is an open-air switchgear in the west.

Power house

The power house has a north-south oriented, rectangular floor plan with an external length of 26.5 meters and an external width of 16.8 meters. Together with the steep hipped roof , it is 24 meters high. It consists of reinforced concrete and its facades of sprayed-on exposed concrete . The eastern longitudinal facade is divided into six axes with a round arched passage and five round arched windows. A high oval sign with the inscription "STEWEAG Werk Arnstein 1922 - 24" is located above the passage, which is partly vaulted with a concrete beam ceiling, with a two-winged entrance gate. A round arched pedestrian door with a barred round window is embedded in the central axis of the gate made of sheet iron. In the arch of the gate itself there are two braced, quarter-circle glass fields. To the left of the passage there is a low workshop wing with a hipped pent roof and to the right a two-winged arched gate to the machine hall. The northern end facade of the power house is three with Lisenenvorlagen subdivided separate arched windows. All windows of the power house are provided with iron bars and are single-glazed. The cornice has a grooved lower profile and marks where the crane runway runs inside. The vertical structure with semicircular wall templates with triple-coupled rectangular lattice windows in between is set in front of the cornice. Above this first cornice there is a second grooved end cornice, above which the steep hipped roof, covered with shingles made of fiber cement, begins. The roof has small triangular dormers and a roof structure made of iron struts.

The interior of the power house is 25 meters long, 14 meters wide and 13.75 meters high. The walls are smoothly plastered and painted white. The room is covered by a flat wooden beam ceiling and the flooring is made of square shaped, red tiles. There are three horizontally installed Francis turbines along the longitudinal axis , made by JM Voith in St. Pölten . In the western longitudinal wall there is a wide, semicircular window through which you can look into the control room . In the southern wall there is a passage with an elevated parking space. A hall crane made of riveted steel lattice girders can place objects from the passage on this or in the hall . The crane runway rests on a wall bench.

Wheelhouse and connecting passage

The two-storey wheelhouse is attached to the western longitudinal wall of the powerhouse at a right angle. It has a rectangular floor plan and smooth plastered facades with a protruding base and a fluted cornice. The foundation is made of reinforced concrete, while the rising masonry was made of bricks. Above the cornice is a steep hipped roof covered with shingles made of fiber cement with a roof truss made of wood. The grooved, double-sashed windows are rectangular in shape on the ground floor and rectangular in shape on the upper floor. Like the double-leaf doors, they are surrounded by raised and beveled bezels . Iron grilles shaped like volutes protect the glasses set into the doors. The grille in the western entrance door also bears the word "STEWEAG".

In the vestibule of the wheelhouse there is an octagonal pillar made of artificial stone that supports the ceiling of the upper floor. A two-armed staircase made of artificial stone with an iron railing leads from the vestibule to the upper floor. A wall fountain decorated with a figure of Teigitschmandl is located on the ground floor. There is also the machinist's bench and table, which used to be in the machine shop. At the top, the ground floor is closed off by a wooden beam ceiling. The upper floor has an almost square floor plan with bevelled corners. The control room is located in this room, from which the machine hall can be seen through an arched window. The control panels and panels are clad with black Belgian shell limestone . A skylight with rich, net-like iron sprouts is embedded in a cornice with multiple bulges . The flooring consists partly of red, square tiles.

On the western wall of the upper floor of the wheelhouse is a connecting passage to the switching houses. The corridor is smoothly plastered on the outside and rests on round arches supported by pillars. There are domed, rectangular shaped windows with lattices above a cornice. The corridor is covered by a gable roof.

Switch houses

To the west of the connecting corridor are the two switchhouse wings, which are lined up one behind the other. The first switch house is for the 20 kV systems and the second switch house for the 60 kV systems. Both switchhouses are two-story and slightly staggered in height. They have a rectangular floor plan and high hip roofs covered with fiber cement shingles with triangular dormers and a wooden roof truss. The foundations are made of reinforced concrete, while the rising walls are made of bricks. The facades are smoothly plastered and a cordon cornice separates the ground floor from the upper floor. The small windows on the ground floor are largely square in shape, while the windows on the upper floor on the northern facade are rectangular. The upper floors also have skylights that are separated by wall benches. On the northern outer walls of the upper floors there are brackets under canopies for the bracing .

In front of the southern outer walls there is a low wing, smoothly plastered on the outside, with a hipped pent roof with dormers. It has large folding doors with skylights. The transformers and some side rooms are located in this wing.

In the switch house for the 60 kV systems there is a spiral staircase from which both switch houses can be reached. It is accessible from the north through a double-wing door and has spherical balustrade pillars on the ground floor. In the same switch house there is a two-armed staircase made of artificial stone with an iron railing. The floors are partially covered with red, square tiles.

Wreath weir

To the right of the underwater canal is the so-called Kranz weir of the Kranz paper mill. The substructure made of in-situ concrete with a façade made of exposed concrete has a rectangular floor plan. A shed with wooden walls and a hipped roof covered with fiber cement shingles stands above the substructure.

Headrace

The two pressure pipes for the penstock

The headwater for the power plant comes from the Hirzmann Reservoir , the Langmann Reservoir and the Packer Reservoir . It is conducted over a slope from the reservoirs to the power plant via two exposed penstocks. The lines go on the eastern outer wall of the power house under the platform of the underwater. From there they branch off to the machine sets. The underwater canal runs from the power house in a north-easterly direction to the Teigitschmühle run-of-river power plant .

proof

• Arnstein storage power plant. www.verbund.com, accessed on June 9, 2014 (German). 

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p} Arnstein storage power plant. www.verbund.com, accessed on June 9, 2014 (German). 
2. ↑ Andrea Kratzer: Arnstein power station is a "monument". In: Small newspaper. www.kleinezeitung.at, July 31, 2012, accessed on June 18, 2020 (German). 
3. ↑ Manfred Hohn: 1. The field railways in the power plant construction in Teigitschgraben. 2. The light railway during the construction of the pack lock. 3. The light railways during the construction of the Hierzman barrier. In: Feldbahnen in Austria. Leykam, Graz 2011. ISBN 978-3-7011-7766-0 . Pp. 9-33.