Ennskraftwerke AG

Ennskraftwerke AG (Ennskraft) is an Austrian electricity generation company headquartered in Steyr, Upper Austria. Founded in 1947, it is jointly owned by VERBUND AG and Energie AG Oberösterreich, each holding a 50% stake. The company operates fourteen hydropower plants, twelve on the Enns river and two on the Steyr river, with a combined average annual generation of approximately 1,900 GWh. This corresponds to a mean capacity of 215 MW and covers the electricity demand of roughly 500,000 households. The plants are operated in a cascade and use pumped-storage and run-of-river technology to meet peak demand. Ennskraft also generates railway traction current for the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) at its Weyer and St. Pantaleon plants. The company is a partner of the Austrian Armed Forces, the Red Cross, and local municipalities, and is involved in environmental projects such as fish migration aids to comply with the EU Water Framework Directive.

Ennskraftwerke AG was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Steyr, Upper Austria. It is jointly owned by VERBUND AG and Energie AG Oberösterreich, each holding a 50% stake. The company's origins, however, trace back to the Nazi era. The construction of the Hermann-Göring-Werke (HGW) plants at Ternberg, Rosenau, and Garsten was pushed forward during the Nazi period. On 14 August 1939, the Lower Enns construction project was declared a 'preferred water engineering' project. After the outbreak of war, plans were changed in April 1940 in favor of the planned Blitzkrieg, and all work requiring longer time was halted. After months of disputes involving Hermann Göring and Reich Minister Todt, concrete construction work on the Ternberg hydropower plant finally began on 10 October 1941. Water rights approval followed on 9 March 1942. By decree of 14 November 1942, the abandonment of rafting was ordered. According to VÖEST, which as legal successor of HGW took possession of the Ternberg power plant construction site in 1945, 80% of the required construction work at the Ternberg plant had been completed by the end of the war. The construction of the Enns power plants from May 1942 to September 1944 was carried out in the Großraming subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp using Nazi forced labor, including numerous foreign male and female civilian workers, prisoners of war, concentration camp prisoners, Austrian and Hungarian Jews, prisoners of labor education camps, and Austrian Sinti and Roma. Due to the turmoil of war, most of the power plants only went into operation after the war, when the Enns river formed the border between the American and Soviet occupation zones. From the 1960s, a further expansion phase took place. Today, Ennskraft operates fourteen locations, twelve on the Enns and two on the Steyr, utilizing the water supply of a catchment area of 6,080 km². The average annual total generation is around 1,900 GWh, corresponding to a mean capacity of 215 MW and the demand of about 500,000 households. The power plant chain is operated in peak-load mode (Schwallbetrieb), meaning that cumulative electricity production on weekdays between 6:00 and 23:00 is about four times higher than at night. Water is slightly impounded at night in the upper-stage plants and increasingly released during the day, allowing increased production during the day despite a nearly constant inflow. Bathers and water sports enthusiasts should take this into account, as suddenly increased currents can occur. In the Weyer and St. Pantaleon plants, one of the two machine sets each generates electricity for the ÖBB railway power grid. The railway power capacity in Weyer is 18 MW, and in St. Pantaleon 25 MW.

• Lower Enns construction project declared 'preferred water engineering'.

• Concrete construction work begins on the Ternberg hydropower plant.

• Water rights approval granted for the Ternberg plant.

• Abandonment of rafting on the Enns ordered by decree.

• Ennskraftwerke AG founded.

• Further expansion phase of power plants.

• Construction begins on fish migration aid at Weyer power plant.

Regional hydropower operator and renewable energy producer in Austria.

• Hydroelectricity

  Generated from fourteen hydropower plants on the Enns and Steyr rivers.

• Railway traction current

  Produced at Weyer (18 MW) and St. Pantaleon (25 MW) for the ÖBB railway power grid.

1. 1Ennskraft - Zentrumennskraft.at
2. 2Ennskraftwerke AG - Wikipediade.wikipedia.org
3. 3Ennskraftwerke AG - Wikidatawikidata.org