VERBUND investing a billion euros in Kaprun
The Kaprun storage power plants in Salzburg’s Hohe Tauern mountains are a symbol of Austria’s reconstruction after the Second World War. Since the 1950s, the abundance of water in Kaprun has been used to generate clean electricity from hydropower. As part of the modernisation measures required to reissue the water usage rights for the Kaprun power plant group in 2029, VERBUND is planning to construct another pumped storage power plant. The “PSP Schaufelberg” project is an important element of the energy transformation and also offers ecological added value by relieving the surge and drop in the Kapruner Ache. Together with the pumped storage power plants Kaprun Upper Stage, Limberg II and Limberg III, it will further strengthen the green battery in the heart of Austria, relieve the electricity grids and, together with the Kaprun main stage and Klammsee power plants, contribute 1,860 MW to Austria’s security of supply.
VERBUND CEO Michael Strugl: “Electricity consumption in Austria will double by 2040. To cope with this, the generating capacity must almost triple, with a large proportion coming from renewable forms of energy. Pumped storage power plants play an indispensable role here in ensuring grid stability and a secure supply of clean electricity in Austria. That’s why we’re investing almost an additional one billion euros in Kaprun.”
Project “Kaprun 2029”: reissue of water usage rights
The water usage rights for the Kaprun power plant group are up for renewal in 2029, which means being able to demonstrate that all the plant components concerned are state of the art. VERBUND is already in the process of implementing these steps with project “Kaprun 2029”.
The centrepiece of the roughly 370 million euro labour- and investment-intensive project is the complete reconstruction of the pressure tunnel of the Kaprun main stage power plant, which was built in the 1940s and 1950s. Work on this has already started: in the course of the officially prescribed emptying of the Wasserfallboden reservoir in the first half of 2024, construction work on the planned new headrace was carried out in addition to the follow-up work for Limberg III. This avoided any further emptying of the reservoir.
Work on the construction of the new headrace from the Limberg valve chamber to the existing Maiskogel valve chamber is scheduled to begin in early 2025. In total, almost 9 kilometres of new tunnels will be constructed there. Most of it will be constructed using a tunnel boring machine, with the rest being created through blasting. The work is taking place almost entirely underground.
In addition to a large number of structural, mechanical and electrical upgrades, important adjustments to the water ecology are also being made in line with the requirements of the EU’s Water Framework Directive. This includes reducing the surge and drop, and creating fish passes in the Kapruner Ache.
Schaufelberg pumped storage power plant project
The inflow of water from the mountains into Kaprun is so great that a further pumped storage power plant can be operated, thus enabling the entire system to be used even more efficiently.
The newly planned Schaufelberg pumped storage power plant will be built largely underground, like Limberg II and III, and will also have a capacity of 480 MW. It lies 700 metres above sea level, around 900 metres inside the mountain. The new headrace tunnel, which is over 6 kilometres long and 5.8 metres in diameter, will in future transport water to the main stage and Schaufelberg power plants.
With the construction of a new surge compensation basin in the Kottingeinöden district of Piesendorf, the return of the process water to the Salzach will be decoupled from the operation of all power plants in Kaprun and adapted to the requirements for water ecology. The connection of the Kaprun main stage power plant to the compensating basin reduces the current surge and drop of the Kapruner Ache.
The Schaufelberg project is subject to an environmental impact assessment and has an investment volume of around 600 million euros. The documents are to be submitted in mid-2025.
