Power Plants on Danube Are Flood-Proof

The power plants of VERBUND-Austrian Hydro Power AG (AHP) on the Danube are able to cope with the water volumes of this extraordinary flood, and the plants are safe. The electricity generation is strongly affected, but everyone’s attention is focused on the safe high-water evacuation.

The power plants on the Danube cannot influence floods and neither delay nor prevent them. The plants are designed in such a way that the equal volume of water that flows to the power plant immediately runs off the plant again. For the runoff the turbines, the dams and, in the case of major floods, when navigation is stopped, also the lift locks are used. Currently locks at the power plants Abwinden-Asten, Wallsee-Mitterkirchen, Ybbs-Persenbeug, Melk and Freudenau are open for high-water evacuation.

"Our power plants on the Danube are holding out in this current exceptional flood, the safety of the residents near the Danube is not affected by the power plants", the board member of VERBUND-Austrian Hydro Power AG (AHP) Michael Amerer assures the population: "The high-water evacuation has been executed properly according to the Water Board’s decisions."