Hieflau Power Plant

At the gates of the Gesäuse National Park on the river Enns in the municipality of Hieflau lies the most powerful VERBUND hydropower plant in Styria.

83.508 households

supplies the Hieflau power plant

278.953 avoided
tonnes of CO2*

Comprehensive renewal of the Hieflau power plant completed in 2013

Fish bypass available

The powerhouse is located in the former ore mining area that surrounds the nearby Erzberg. It was built on the site of the Hieflauer blast furnace, remains of which can still be found at the edge of the powerhouse site. Today, thanks to state-of-the-art technology, approx. 80,000 households can be supplied with electricity generated entirely from hydropower.
The power plant was comprehensively modernised from 2007 to 2013. A new weir power plant was built in Gstatterboden and now uses the energy of the residual water section of the Enns. A second 6 km-long headrace tunnel increases the water intake to the modernised Wag reservoir storage and to the powerhouse in Hieflau. The three machine sets were also completely dismantled, and the Francis turbines were fitted with new impellers.

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Owner	VERBUND Hydro Power GmbH
Operator	VERBUND Hydro Power GmbH
Commissioning	1956
Type	Storage power plant
Country	Austria
Region	Styria
Waters	Enns
Output	63 MW
Annual output	369,653 MWh
Turbine	Francis
Connectivity	Fish bypass

At the Hieflau power plant, a wide range of supporting ecological measures was implemented. In the immediate vicinity of the Gesäuse National Park, four times more water has been released into the Enns since the conversion, so that even re-population with the Danube salmon is conceivable.
As part of the expansion measures, the Gstatterboden weir was equipped with a modern fish bypass.

Responsible treatment of the environment

The Hieflau power plant consists of the Gstatterboden weir system, the Wag daily storage facility and the Hieflau powerhouse.

Turbines and generators: Three Francis turbines with vertical shafts and sheet metal spirals have a nominal output of 22,000 kW at a nominal drop height of 85 metres. The directly coupled 25,000 kVA three-phase synchronous generators supply electricity with a nominal voltage of 10.5 kV.

Transformers: The generated energy is raised to 110 kV via three 25,000 kVA machine transformers transmitted via a loop of the Hessenberg-Ernsthofen line.

The Wag daily storage tank holds 1,650 million litres of water, which corresponds to an energy content of 330,000 kilowatt hours.

Hydro consulting from VERBUND