The Staudinger Power Plant Produces Electricity for You

The Staudinger power plant in Großkrotzenburg is one of E.ON Kraftwerke's top-performance sites and the biggest conventional power plant in Hesse. It consists of five power plant blocks, five of which are fired by hard coal and one by gas. The total installed power capacity is 2,000 megawatts.

Foundation stone laid in 1963

Staudinger is a power plant with a tradition going back more than 40 years. The first two power plant blocks went on stream in 1965. As demand for power grew in the following years, the Staudinger power plant was expanded step by step. The last new block, Block 5, started operation in 1992.

Power for millions

The five power plant blocks have a total power capacity of almost 2,000 megawatts, generating about 5,000 gigawatt hours of electricity per year. This is enough to meet the power needs of five million people. The Staudinger power plant also produces district heating for around 16,000 households in Großkrotzenburg and Hanau.

Base, medium and peak load

Power can't be stored. It has to be generated at the moment it is needed. It is for this reason that the blocks at the Staudinger power plant aren't all kept running at the same time, but are switched on and off according to need. Block 5 is run in base load operation and accounts for the lion's share of production. Blocks 1 and 3 are medium load power plants and usually only in operation during the day. Block 2 has not been in operation since 2001. The gas-fired block 4 is a peak load plant. It is available for use at times of heavy demand and plays a major role in leveling the irregularity of input from wind power.

Jobs for more than 460 people

A major power plant like this naturally needs qualified personnel. More than 460 people are employed at the Staudinger power plant. In addition to these are the large number of employees of third-party and partner firms, who play a regular supporting role in the work of the power plant team. This is not the least important reason why the power plant is a vital economic factor in the region.


Electricity from hard coal

The power generated by the Staudinger power plant comes mainly from hard coal, gas making up only a small part of the fuel. The coal consumption averages two million tons a year, most of the coal being imported from countries like South Africa, Columbia, Norway and Indonesia. It is delivered to the power plant both by ship and by rail. The shipment port is Rotterdam, where the coal is offloaded from the large ocean-going freighters onto coal barges, and then transported up the River Rhine and the River Main to Grosskrotzenburg.

We put the pressure on

Conveyer belts take the coal to coal mills, where it is pulverized into dust. It is then blown over burners into the boiler, where it combusts at temperatures of around 1400 degrees centigrade.
The hot steam produced in the boiler is passed at high pressure onto the blades of a three-stage turbine. The turbine is coupled with a generator which converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy. This creates electricity in a similar way to a bicycle dynamo, and this electricity is then supplied to the power grid by way of the transformers and an outdoor substation.


Cutting edge flue gas purification plants

When coal is combusted it produces waste gas. To make sure this flue gases do not pollute the environment, the Staudinger power plant purifies them using a complex process. The process has three phases, in which first the nitrogen oxides, then the dust and finally the sulfur is washed out of the flue gas. This means that the impact on the environment can be reduced to a minimum. The quantity of pollutants released into the air is far below the limits set by law. The by-products of the flue gas purification are materials like flue ash, granules and gypsum, all of which are utilized in the construction industry.


Great heights

Wherever you are in the region, the flues and cooling towers of the Staudinger power plant can be seen from a long way away. The flues of blocks 1-3 are 195 meters high, and those of block 4 are 250 meters high. There's no overlooking the two natural draft cooling towers of blocks 4 and 5, at heights of 128 and 141 meters respectively. And our boiler houses are also taller than most church towers: the one at block 5 is around 100 meters high.


How did the powers plant get its name?

The Staudinger power plant owes its name to Professor Dr. Hans Staudinger (1889-1980). He was the first supervisory board chairman of the former Preußischen Elektrizitäts-AG and played a major role in the establishment of the company. Having emigrated to the USA in 1934, he made a trip to Grosskrotzenburg in 1965 in order to commission the power plant that bears his name.