Reisseck II Pumped Storage Power Plant

The new Reisseck II pumped storage power plant serves as an expansion to the existing group of power plants, Malta and Reisseck/Kreuzeck in Carinthia. It links the hydraulic systems of the power plant group, thereby optimising the use of resources. The power plant has a power output in turbine and pumping operation of 430MW.

The location of the construction site and the logistics presented the relevant teams with special challenges: in the Alpine area at heights of 600 to 2,400m above sea level, they built a sloped shaft with a gradient of 42° and a length of 820m using conventional shaft-sinking methods. A special avalanche warning system was set up for the 7km-long construction site in the Mühldorfer Graben area to protect the workers during the winter months. 

The spectacular construction site attracted numerous sightseers and so the flows of visitors through the construction site also had to be organised.

Today the new, approx. 5km-long headrace consists of a 3.3km-long headrace gallery, a 0.8km-long pressure shaft, a 0.6km-long flat section and a 0.3km upstream distribution pipeline, via which the water flows into the new hydropower cavern.