EnBW starts constructing the Kehl hydropower plant

Stuttgart/Kehl. The “EnBW Hydropower Year 2006“, which is being accompanied by a national poster campaign, has another highlight: after intensive planning and negotiations, the green light has now been given for constructing a new hydropower plant at the agricultural weir Kehl/Straßburg of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg. The construction work will officially start today with a symbolic first cut of the turf at the Kehl hydropower plant, which with an annual production of about 8,200 megawatt-hours will supply more than 5,000 people with base-load electricity which is produced without any CO2 emissions. The construction of the new plant in Kehl, which should already start operating at the end of 2007, is part of a joint project of EnBW Kraftwerke AG and EDF through the subsidiaries Rheinkraftwerk Iffezheim GmbH (RKI) and Centrale Electrique Rhenane de Gambsheim (CERGA), which both companies each own 50 % of. As part of this project, CERGA will also soon start constructing a hydropower plant at the agricultural weir in Breisach. The construction of the two new hydropower plants in Kehl and Breisach is another sign of our lasting commitment to generating electricity from renewable hydropower and confirms once more that EnBW is leading the way in Germany when it comes to expanding hydropower.

In the early 1990s, we already started planning to use hydropower at the agricultural weirs in Kehl/Straßburg and Breisach, which form an important building block within the scope of the integrated Rhine Flood Protection Programme in France and Germany. For the four times the agricultural weir Kehl/Straßburg has been used during flooding (up to 37 million m³ retention volume), the residents who live on the lower exposed Rhine stretch were able to be protected through the targeted retention of large amounts of flood water. This task will continue to be the top priority.

It took a long time from the first considerations until the realisation of the construction of the two new power plants. Since the Upper Rhine also forms the national border between Germany and France, an appropriate International Agreement on the use of the hydropower had to be concluded between Germany and France. This contract, which was concluded at the end of 2000, envisages a coherent and simultaneous realisation of these two projects through partner companies. Accordingly, at the beginning of 2001 the two companies RKI and CERGA initiated the necessary Water Law-related approval procedures, both in Germany for the Kehl plant and in France for the Breisach project. When the approval decisions were made in April 2006, these procedures were able to be successfully completed and all of the required preparations for the start of construction were made.

The Kehl plant is located on the right German bank of the Rhine and is designed for an average outflow of 35 m³/s, which is taken from the permanent retaining capacity of the agricultural weir Kehl/Straßburg. Once the planned vertical Kaplan turbine has been installed, the hydropower plant will have an output of up to 1.4 MW with the maximum existing variation in the height of fall of 4.70 metres. The hydropower plant is divided into three sections: an intake structure with a fish bypass, a supply canal that is about 60 metres long and a powerhouse with an outlet structure.

“The construction project in Kehl is another example of how EnBW is investing in the generation of electricity from renewable hydropower in an ecologically-sound and economically-responsible manner and further increasing its high percentage of hydropower. When it came to designing the plant, we also duly placed great importance on taking into consideration the requirements related to the protection of the landscape and nature. In addition to the measures taken to protect the fish, the realisation of the construction work, which is underground in some places, guarantees that the natural scenery and the recreational value will not be affected by the plant,” emphasised the Managing Director of RKI, Dr. Nicolaus Römer, within the scope of the ceremonious first cut of the turf.

Characteristic values of the two hydropower plant projects in Kehl and Breisach