Biggest pumped-storage power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia

With our Herdecke pumped-storage power plant, we can store electricity and release it at short notice whenever the demand arises. The successor to the old Koepchenwerk pumped-storage power plant functions like a battery on the power grid: during times of low electricity demand and high feed-in from renewables, water is pumped from the Hengsteysee reservoir into the storage reservoir at the higher level. When the need arises, for example in times of high demand for electricity and low, strongly fluctuating feed-in, the water can then be released again downward, through a pipe that connects the upper reservoir with the lower Hengsteysee reservoir. The generating set consists of a reversible pump-turbine and a motor-generator. Maximum output can be achieved in less than two minutes from standstill.