The Schluchseewerk AG is the operator of five pumped storage hydroelectric power stations in the Southern Black Forest in the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. Its head office is in

Laufenburg (Baden) Laufenburg is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, part of the Waldshut district. It has approximately 4300 inhabitants (including 6 outskirts 8300 inhabitants). Laufenburg is separated from a Swiss city with the same name by the river Rhi ...

. The shareholders of the Schluchseewerk are

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...

(50%),

EnBW EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, or simply EnBW, is a publicly-traded energy company headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany. As its name indicates, EnBW is based in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. History Foundation and development ...

(37.5%), ''Energiedienst'' (7.5%) and ''Energiedienst Holding'' (5%) (the last two are subsidiaries of EnBW).

History

The Schluchseewerk was founded in 1928. Its head office was in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

in ''Rempartstraße'' 14-16. In 1931 Häusern Power Station joined the network. Whilst work on Witznau Power Station had to be delayed until 1943 as a result of the Great Depression, work on Waldshut Power Station was completely halted in 1944 due to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Not until 1951 (six years after the end of the war) was the power station finished. Both projects involved the engineer and, later, federal service cross (''Bundesverdienstkreuzträger'') holder, Erich Pfisterer. In 1951, the company picked up plans for the Wutach Dam and expanded them comprehensively. For nature conservation and environmental reasons as well as widespread opposition by the local population, the project was axed in 1960 by the state government. In 1967 the Säckingen

underground power station An underground power station is a type of hydroelectric power station constructed by excavating the major components (e.g. machine hall, penstocks, and tailrace) from rock, rather than the more common surface-based construction methods. One or mor ...

, which was fed by the Eggberg Basin, was added to the network. At the same time the Kühmoos load balancing and power switching station (''Lastverteilung/Schaltanlage Kühmoos'') was opened as a control centre for all Schluchseewerk-operated pumped storage hydroelectric power stations. In 1976, the Wehr underground power station and the Wehra and

Hornberg Basin The Hornberg Basin (german: Hornbergbecken) is the upper reservoir of the Wehr power station, whose lower reservoir is impounded by the Wehra Dam. It lies near Herrischried (Hornberg) and near the town of Wehr in the county of Waldshut in Baden ...

s were added to the system. Due to renovation work the level of the

Schluchsee The Schluchsee is a reservoir lake in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, southeast of the Titisee in the Black Forest near Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Name In the Alemannic dialects of the region the name of the lake is the ''Schluec ...

was lowered in 1983, which brought numerous onlookers to the reservoir. Since 2004, the Schluchseewerk has had the engineering and business operating lead for the Albbruck-Dogern Power Station. This run-of-the-river hydroelectric power station was expanded in December 2009 by a weir power station and delivers an average of 650 million kilowatt-hours of power per year. The reservoir of this Rhine power station uses the Waldshut Power Station as a lower reservoir. Head office was moved in late 2006 to

Literature

* Adolf Eisenlohr: ''Das Schluchseewerk.'' In: ''Die Bautechnik'', 8th annual, Issue 17 (18 April 1930), pp. 259–263.

References

External links

Schluchseewerk AG
* {{Authority control Pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations in Germany Electric power companies of Germany Hydroelectric power companies of Germany Renewable energy companies of Germany Waldshut (district) Baden Renewable resource companies established in 1928 Energy companies established in 1928 German companies established in 1928 Companies based in Baden-Württemberg