Teufelsbruck Run-of-River Power Plant

Right where the Inn River forms a tight loop is where the Teufelsbruck power plant is located, in the north-eastern part of Upper Bavaria near Schambacher Höhe.

The Teufelsbruck power plant is located in the north-east of Upper Bavaria, at the Schambacher Höhe, just where the Inn makes a tight loop.
When the power plant was built 80 years ago, the idea of building a fish bypass was already being considered. Today a must for the continuity of waters, at that time a sign for very progressive, ecological thinking. At the end of 2014, this fish bypass was brought up to date and now also attracts larger fish species such as Danube salmon, grayling, barbel and common nase.
The Teufelsbruck power plant built in the same year as the Wasserburg power plant and the Gars power plant, and the construction and technology are the same. With an output of 25 MW, the power plant is capable of supplying around 33,000 households with electricity generated entirely from hydropower.

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Owner	VERBUND Innkraftwerke GmbH
Operator	VERBUND Innkraftwerke GmbH
Commissioning	1938
Type	Run-of-river power plant
Country	Germany
Region	Bavaria
Waters	Inn
Output	25 MW
Annual output	150,487 MWh
Turbine	Kaplan
Connectivity	Fish bypass

Each hydropower plant on the Inn comprises:

the machinery hall with the turbines,
the weir systems for flood release,
the dams and dikes for the accompanying flood protection
and – if inland drainage has been disrupted by the dams – the pumping stations and ditches, which guarantee agricultural use that existed before construction of the barrage.

The VERBUND hydropower plants on the Inn are therefore not only plants for generating electricity but also improve flood protection in the region. VERBUND also focuses on improving the ecological conditions at individual sites and on restoring natural river landscapes. We implement a large number of measures in this regard, such as:

creating continuity of flow with fish bypasses,
giving structure to bodies of water,
connecting tributaries.

In order to guarantee habitats for fish with all their habitat requirements – from spawn to adult specimens – management of the gravel banks is additionally carried out in the near-natural fish bypass or below the weir. Another important component for the long-term conservation of fish fauna is the maintenance of sediment continuity through sediment management, a topic of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) for species conservation in man-made rivers.

Between the powerhouse and the farm building on the land side, a fish ladder was planned back in 1938 during the facility’s construction. In 2014, the fish bypass was redesigned as a slot pass with 53 concrete basin passes. The bypass channel overcomes the entire power plant head of around eight metres.
Further measures on the Inn are: Gravel spawning grounds were ecologically optimised and some old water systems newly laid out and reactivated in the tailwater of the Wasserburg stage. Amphibian ponds and still water areas were also created near the Teufelsbruck power plant. In addition, habitats for grasshoppers and butterflies – particularly suitable for the Jersey tiger – as well as a wetland habitat of around six hectares with ideal conditions for typical regional animal and plant species were created in the dam area.

Technical description

The Teufelsbruck power plant built between 1935 and 1938, together with the Wasserburg and Gars stages built at the same time, represents the first use of the “bayside power plant” type on the Inn river.
Five sets of machinery, each consisting of a vertical Kaplan turbine and a three-phase generator, are installed in the powerhouse located on the left bank of the river on the inside of the river loop. The Teufelsbruck power plant generates around 150 GWh of electricity per year.

Hydro consulting from VERBUND