Wedel power plant remains online longer due to construction delays in the port

Due to delays in the construction of the new Hafen energy park, the Wedel coal-fired power plant has to remain on the grid for longer. Georg Wendt/dpa

The Wedel coal-fired power plant will have to supply district heating customers in western Hamburg with heat for longer than planned. The reason for this is delays in the construction of the new Hafen energy park on the Dradenau, which was supposed to replace the aging power plant just across the state border in Schleswig-Holstein by the end of 2025 and put it into reserve operation, as Christian Heine, spokesman for the management of Hamburger Energiewerke, told the German Press Agency. “We have construction delays of four months. But the schedule to start commissioning at the end of 2025 is set.”

However, due to the construction delays, it will no longer be possible for the energy park to take over the heat supply in the 2025/2026 heating period, which is already underway, as the trouble-free operation of the new, highly efficient plant must first be ensured. “Afterwards, we will be able to go into reserve with the Wedel power plant.”

Wedel will only go into reserve after the 2025/2026 heating season

The reserve operation is necessary to ensure security of supply in the event of adjustments in the energy park. “Wedel can only be shut down when everything is running reliably in the Hafen energy park,” says Heine. It is not yet possible to say exactly when the coal-fired power plant can be shut down completely.

Until now, the Senate had promised spring 2026. Hamburg will phase out coal for heating by 2030. The Tiefstack heating plant in the east of Hamburg is also to be replaced by then.

The Hafen Energy Park is the heart of Hamburg’s heat transition

The Hafen Energy Park, which brings together various heat sources, is the heart of the heat transition. Waste heat from nearby industrial plants, the Rugenberger Damm waste incineration plant and the wastewater treatment plant at the Dradenau sewage treatment plant is used. The heat is to be stored in a 50-meter-high thermal tank with water at 98 degrees. A highly efficient gas and steam turbine plant (CCGT) will generate additional heat when required and also electricity using combined heat and power. In the future, 55 percent of the district heating will come from climate-neutral sources.

“This energy park port project is extremely complex,” says Heine. “There are an incredible number of factories working here at the same time. And the delay is due to the orchestration of all these construction measures.” Work was carried out at full speed to complete the project. “We are building in multiple shifts and are trying to make up some of the time so that Wedel can go into reserve after the 2025/2026 heating season.”

Crises and inflation also cause costs for energy parks to rise

Crisis-related supply chain disruptions and inflation would also have increased the costs of the ambitious project. The original budget for the cogeneration plant on the Dradenau alone was 600 million euros. “This cost block already includes a very high risk provision.” But this has already been used up – due to the Ukraine crisis and inflation, which have led to higher personnel costs as well as higher material costs in the steel sector.” By 2028, Hamburg will invest a total of around 2.85 billion euros in the heat transition.

The construction progress on the Dradenau can be clearly seen after 28 months – especially when driving into the Elbe tunnel on the motorway from the south: the most striking feature is the brown, rusty heat storage tank that rises 50 meters into the air – now almost completely full of fully salted water. “It is currently filled with around 47,000 cubic meters,” says the plant's planning manager, Andreas Buchheim. “For a simple reason: before you start insulating the tank, you will make sure that the welds are tight.” And it is tight.” Completely filled with 50 million liters of water, it could store 2000 megawatt hours of thermal energy.

Large heat storage unit is insulated – no more rusty dose

Insulation work on the tower has now begun. “By the end of the year, it will have a shell and later the lower half will be covered in greenery,” says Buchheim. The press has already described the storage facility as a rusty can on the highway. “That will be over then.”

In addition to the tank, the operating buildings also grew in height, founded on 1,600 piles over 17 meters long, which were first driven into the ground. “The district heating pipes for connecting the energy park are already on the site. “We have already buried 1.2 kilometers of pipes here alone so that we can now build over the areas,” says the project manager.

More than 20,000 cubic metres of concrete have already been used and almost 1,500 tonnes of structural steel have been installed – up to 400 tonnes will be added per week in the near future, according to him. The two large gas turbines and a steam generator are already in place in the machine hall.

Around a third of the new Elbe district heating tunnel completed

In order to bring the heat from the energy park in the port to the district heating network on the northern bank of the Elbe, “Hermine” has been drilling through the muddy subsoil since November last year. “Hermine” stands for “Hamburger Energiewerke Röhre Mit Neuer Energie”. The tunnel boring machine is now at tunnel meter 380. “That is just behind Seemannshöft,” says project manager Dirk Lassen-Petersen. “We have already passed under the Köhlfleet port and the tanker bridge, and have driven about one and a half meters under the bridge's piles.”

This means that a third of the route has been completed and the lowest point of the tunnel boring has been overcome. “From now on we are heading upwards,” he said. “And now we have a clear path, because at least from above there are no more obstacles.”

The target of the drilling is the Hindenburg Park in Othmarschen. “At the moment, Hermine is managing about eight to ten meters a day. We'll be here by the end of this year,” says Lasse-Petersen at the construction site on the Elbchaussee, where a 34-meter-deep target shaft with a diameter of 13 meters has been dug into the Elbe bank. “We don't need such a large shaft for the two lines.” But the tunnel boring machine has to go through here because it can't drive backwards.”

Once the energy park is connected, the target shaft in Hindenburg Park will also be invisible, he promises. “At the end there will be a lid on it and all these piles of sand will be removed. Then we will add topsoil and restore the park – and then everything will be nice again.”