Reliable Energy for Hamburg

Moorburg Power Plant

Almost eleven years of planning, con-

struction and commissioning had

passed by the time Olaf Scholz, the

mayor of Hamburg, pushed the sym-

bolic start button at the inauguration

ceremony. Over the preceding decade, much had

changed in both the German energy market and

general attitudes towards fossil fuels, but this

hadn’t diminished the need for Moorburg Com-

bined Heat and Power Plant (CHP) – it had, in fact,

become even more necessary in the face of grow-

ing wind and solar power generation.

Flexibility key to the energy transition The power plant was planned as a base load plant

scheduled to run continuously at full load and thus

reliably supply power to the 1.8 million people of

Hamburg and its energy-intensive industry fol-

lowing shutdown of the region’s nuclear reactors.

Today, however, conventional power plants are

sometimes not needed during periods of strong

winds and good sunlight, and Moorburg, one of

the most efficient fossil-fuel power plants in

Europe, responds to this by reducing its load. It

does, however, almost always keep one unit in

operation to rapidly make up the energy shortfall

required by the grid operator when the power of

the wind and sun weakens. Since commissioning,

Vattenfall has also continued to invest in efforts

to make the power plant more flexible: today, for

example, it takes just ten minutes to increase

or reduce its output by up to 500 megawatts –

equating to around a third of Hamburg’s electri-

city requirements.

From power plant to CHP plantFrom the very outset, Moorburg power plant

was designed to make optimum use of the heat

generated during electricity production, and since

2016 it has been supplying process steam to a

neighbouring refinery. At present, we are working

to acquire further heat customers.

“Moorburg Power Plant is a cornerstone of

the energy transition. That sounds like a

contradiction in terms, but its flexibility

allows us to balance out fluctuations in the

supply of renewables – and makes the plant

critical to ensuring supply meets demand in

northern Germany.”

Dr Karsten Schneiker Director of Moorburg Power

Plant

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Engaging in dialogueMoorburg CHP plant is now a real part of Ham-

burg’s fabric – and in that spirit has espoused an

open-door policy since construction began: any-

one curious to know more can head to the visi-

tor centre or take a guided tour and see the site,

the technology it houses and the sheer scale of

the plant for themselves. Since 2009, more than

26,000 visitors have passed through our doors.

Over the past few years, we have also been en-

gaging in regular dialogue with local residents

and keeping them up-to-date with informative

newsletters. In addition, answers to all sorts of

questions about the power plant can be found on

our website at www.heizkraftwerk-moorburg.de

(a selection are printed on page 13).

This brochure, too, is one of the many ways you

can find out more about Moorburg Combinded

Heat and Power Plant.

Moorburg CHP Plant

A7

A7

A261

A253

A252

A255

A1

A1

Hamburg

HafenCity

Norderelbe

Süderelbe

Moorburg CHP plant on the Süderelbe in the

Port of Hamburg generally operates at full load

to supply electricity to Hamburg – but on some

days it also runs at a reduced load, providing

back-up power to complement energy output

from renewables.

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Conventional but highly efficient: Moorburg CHP plant is

one of Europe’s most modern and environmentally-friendly

coal-fired power plants.

A reliable supply to homes and industryHamburg is Germany’s second largest city and

home to some 1.8 million people, all of whom rely

on a stable supply of electricity around the clock.

The Hanseatic city is also a major business hub,

and the energy-intensive industries located here

crucially depend on a reliable power supply.

Covering three-quarters of Hamburg’s needsUntil 2015, some 85 per cent of the 13 billion

kilowatt hours of electricity used in Hamburg was

imported. Moorburg CHP plant, producing up to

10 billion kilowatt hours a year, almost completely

bridges this gap between local supply and de-

mand. The biggest power plant in northern Ger-

many, it helps to guarantee a reliable power sup-

ply throughout the region – directly from the Port

of Hamburg. This convenient location on the Sü-

derelbe branch of the Elbe river also means that

the coal it needs does not have to be transported

across the country; instead, it is efficiently deliv-

ered directly to the power plant by ship.

Greater efficiency, lower emissionsMoorburg CHP has a very high efficiency of

up to 46.5 per cent with once-through cooling

using water from the Elbe river, and 45.1 per cent

using the hybrid cooling tower. The achieved

ratio of coal and other raw materials to usable

energy underlines our commitment to saving

resources. In comparison with older coal-fired

power plants, every kilowatt hour that Moorburg

CHP plant supplies to the grid around a quarter

less CO2 produced.

The energy source in the Port of Hamburg

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Always ready to step inHelping to advance the energy transitionIs there room for conventional power plants in our

modern world? Absolutely, as even though renew-

able power is constantly gaining market share, it

will not be possible to fully cover demand for the

foreseeable future. Conventional power plants

will remain necessary until new technologies,

such as ways to boost energy storage, are avail-

able. The construction of further wind and solar

power plants will make no difference: when the

wind drops and the sun goes down, we need coal

and gas-fired power plants to cover the shortfall.

While it was still under construction, Moorburg

CHP plant was already being adapted to reflect

ongoing changes in the energy market. The origi-

nally planned base load power plant thus became

a highly flexible plant able to increase or reduce

its output to meet demand within just a few

minutes. This allows it to balance out natural fluc-

tuations in the supply of renewables and guar-

antee grid stability at all times. Moorburg CHP

plant, then, does not fly in the face of the energy

transition; what it does do is work quietly in the

background to make it a genuine success.

Heat supply with twofold benefitThe power plant has also been supplying heat

since 2016. Some of the available heat is sup-

plied to the neighbouring Holborn Europa refinery

as process steam through a direct pipeline. This

means no burning of gas and no additional CO2

emissions to generate the steam required for the

refinery’s processes. The supply of heat from the

cogeneration process also enables better fuel

utilisation, helping to further boost the power

plant’s efficiency.

Many visitors are awed by the

view inside the two circular

coal stores, with their almost

60-metre-high domed timber

roofs.

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The very latest in established technology:

Moorburg Power Plant in Hamburg is one of the most

efficient of its kind.

Comprising two units, the coal-fired power plant

can generate a gross electric output of over

1,650 megawatts of electricity and up to 650

megawatts of district heating. Also of note is

a high net electric efficiency of 45.1 percent in

conjunction with the hybrid cooling tower, further

rising to 46.5 percent when cooling with water

from the Elbe river.

What actually happens in the CHP plant?Fuel is burned to release its energy, which is then

converted into electricity and heat in the most

efficient way possible.

From coal to steam, from steam to electricityThe coal delivered to the plant’s own pier is first

taken to two large, enclosed circular coal stores,

each with a capacity of 150,000 tons. This fuel

reserve is sufficient for around one month of full-

load operation. The coal is ground into coal dust in

the coal mills and with the help of fresh air is then

blown into the combustion chambers of the steam

generator, i.e. the boiler. The walls of the boiler

comprise a highly ramified pipe system in which

water is circulated and vaporised by the combus-

tion heat. The generated steam is superheated

to a temperature of up to 620 degrees Celsius

A look inside

The turbine and generator

in the turbine hall are

responsible for energy

conversion.

and flows into the turbine at a pressure of up to

276 bar, where it powers the shaft with turbine

blades up to 1.20 metres long. This shaft connects

the turbine to the generator, where the rotational

energy is ultimately converted into electric energy.

Two cooling technologies Moorburg CHP plant’s flexibility also extends to

its cooling system. It can use two different cool-

ing technologies during operation, in particular

to re-condense the steam at the turbine outlet:

once-through cooling with water from the Elbe

river and closed-cycle cooling with the hybrid

cooling tower.

How the hybrid cooling tower worksThe hybrid cooling tower is a combination of

a wet and dry cooling tower. In the wet cool-

ing tower, cooling water is evaporated and has

direct contact with the air. The cooling effect

is primarily generated by the evaporation of a

very small quantity of this cooling water, involv-

ing a great deal of heat that is drawn from the

cooling water. The moist air rising from the lower

wet section is mixed with re-heated dry air in

the dry cooling tower located above. This dry air

can also absorb additional moisture, helping to

reduce the plume formation that is otherwise

typical of cooling towers.

A further plus point: the use of this technology

means that the Moorburg cooling tower, stand-

ing at approximately 60 metres, is only around

one third as tall as cooling towers at other

power plants.

Plume formation

is greatly reduced

thanks to the

dedicated design

of the hybrid

cooling tower.

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1 At the main quay, coal is delivered and unloaded

from Panmax ships with a deadweight tonnage of up

to 70,000 tons. Each of the two ship unloaders can

move up to 20 tons of coal at a time.

4 The coal is burned at temperatures of over

2,000 degrees Celsius in the steam generators in

the boiler hall, causing extremely pure water to

evaporate in the boiler’s pipe walls.

2 The coal is transported on the upper conveyor bridges to the covered circular coal store, and on

the lower conveyor bridges from the storage area to

the boiler hall. All the conveyors are enclosed,

resulting in virtually no dust emission.

5 In the turbine hall, this steam powers the two

turbines at up to 620 degrees Celsius and a pres-

sure of 276 bar. The resulting mechanical energy is

converted into electricity in the generators.

3 150,000 tons of coal can be stored in each of the

two circular coal stores, sufficient for around one

month of full-load operation.

6 The electricity is supplied to the 380,000-volt high-

voltage system via the two generator transformers.

From coal delivery to flue gas purification.

A bird’s-eye view shows how energy for

Hamburg and its surroundings is generated

at Moorburg.

Power plant overview

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7 The hybrid cooling tower is used to cool the cool-

ing water required when water from the Elbe river

cannot be used.

10 The white construction material awaits collec-

tion in the gypsum store.

8 Sulphur oxides are combined with a mixture of

limestone meal and water in the flue gas desulphuri-sation system to produce gypsum and thereby clean

the flue gas.

11 The ash produced during combustion in the boil-

er is stored in the ash silos and used to make con-

crete and cement in the building materials industry.

9 Following the three-stage flue gas purification

process, the 130-metre-high chimney stacks release

almost only visible water vapour (99.93 per cent),

carbon dioxide, and oxygen to the atmosphere.

12 To minimise lorry traffic to the power plant,

gypsum and ash are collected by ship at the

northern quay.

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Putting the environment first

Environmental and climate protection guides all

aspect of power plant operation.

Moorburg CHP plant’s greatest contribution to

protecting the environment is its highly efficient

production of electric power using the smallest

possible quantities of fuel and supplies. It also

features a highly sophisticated design and state-

of-the-art technology. In addition, the power plant

team is involved in a wide range of daily activities

to ensure that every kilowatt hour of electricity is

generated using as little coal as possible.

Well below limit valuesThe combustion technology is ideally matched to

the flue gas purification system, ensuring that the

plant not only meets but in many cases actually

falls well below the statutory limit values in every

operating state.

A clean and quiet neighbourThanks to the flue gas purification process, the

two covered circular coal stores and the enclosed

conveyors, the power plant does not produce any

measurable increase in Hamburg’s dust pollution

levels. And by employing a wide range of noise re-

duction methods, hardly any noise emissions can

be heard in the Moorburg district of the city when

the power plant is in operation.

More info: if you want to get all the facts,

the emission values and other environ-

mental data relating to the power plant

can be viewed online daily at

www.vattenfall.de/moorburg.

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Flue gas: three-stage purification

Flue gases are generated when coal is burned,

and may only be released from the power plant

in purified form. At Moorburg, this is achieved

in a three-stage process: the flue gas is initially

conducted from the steam generator through

the denitrification system. Here, an ammonia-air

mixture decomposes the nitrogen oxides to form

pure nitrogen, as found in the air we breathe, and

water vapour. This is followed by dust removal in

the electrostatic precipitator system. Finally, the

flue gases pass through the desulphurisation sys-

tem. Ash and gypsum remain in the flue gas puri-

fication system and are temporarily stored in ash

silos and the gypsum store.

Clean and easily visible On entering the flue gas desulphurisation system,

the flue gas has a temperature of 120 to 140 de-

grees Celsius. It is purified by injecting a mixture

of limestone meal and water: the sulphur dioxide

in the flue gas reacts with the limestone suspen-

sion while air is supplied to create calcium sul-

phate, better known as gypsum. Compared with

older power plants, at which the flue gases often

rise vertically from the chimney stack at tempera-

tures of over 100 degrees Celsius, the gases from

Moorburg CHP plant are below 60 degrees Cel-

sius. The low temperature is achieved by diverting

the heat from the flue gases to many areas of the

power plant, for example to preheat the combus-

tion air blown into the boiler. During windy peri-

ods, it sometimes looks as if the clouds of steam

are blowing to the side, not up – a sign of the

power plant’s high efficiency levels.

The cooled and purified flue gas is then released

to the atmosphere with a maximum moisture con-

centration from the 130-metre-high stack.

Thanks to the effectiveness of the power plant

and flue gas purification processes, the water va-

pour, which constitutes 99.93 per cent of the flue

gas stream, condenses immediately on exiting the

stack. This explains the smoke plume visible from

afar on some days, easy to see because it is ex-

tremely clean (see page 13).

Use of ash and gypsum The by-product gypsum is conveyed to a circular

gypsum store, from where it is taken on another

conveyor system to the northern quay for trans-

port by ship. Customers range from manufactur-

ers of plasterboard to mushroom growers, who

use the gypsum as fertiliser. The ash produced

in the combustion process is also transported by

ship and used in the building materials industry,

for example to produce cement or build roads.

An animated film showing flue

gas purification can be viewed at

www.kraftwerk-moorburg. hamburg/umweltschutz

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Vattenfall has built a fish ladder at the Geesthacht

weir, about 30 kilometers East of Hamburg, to

protect the Elbe river and mitigate potential dam-

age caused by drawing off cooling water for the

Moorburg power plant. It aims to help the fish

manage this difficult stretch to the upper reaches

of the Elbe. By using the pass that runs along the

northern bank, the fish can find their way to their

spawning grounds.

Migratory route used by millionsThe fish swim upstream through 49 pools cover-

ing a length of 550 metres, each measuring 16 by

9 metres to account for the largest fish species

to be expected – the European sea sturgeon. The

height difference between each of the pools is

nine centimetres. Thanks to the water’s low flow

velocity and turbulence, even weaker swimmers

can easily navigate the barrage in large numbers.

The creatures certainly seem to appreciate the

structure built specially for them, as more than

two million fish of 48 different species have passed

through it since it was commissioned in 2010.

Natural habitat for plants and animalsThe fish pass is complemented by further envi-

ronmental protections. A dam wall was built on

the branch of the Alte Süderelbe lake that runs

through the power plant grounds, for example,

ensuring adherence to a minimum water level of

1.10 metres. It prevents silt from being washed

out of the Alte Süderelbe lake and ensures there

is no drop in water oxygen levels so that protect-

ed plant forms can grow. In addition, a miniature

river course (tidal creek) was laid out in the Al-

tengammer Vorland area in the East of Hamburg,

on the banks of which tidal mudflats have been

created due to the constant alternation of high

and low tides. They provide a natural habitat for

many species of animals and plants, as well as

much-needed resting and feeding areas for mi-

gratory birds.

Species protection in the Elbe biotope

Europe’s biggest fish pass in Geesthacht ensures the continued

existence of numerous fish populations in the Elbe river.

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1Did you know ...

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... why the smoke plume sometimes

looks white, sometimes dark?

... that work goes on around the clock at

Moorburg CHP plant?

… where the coal for Moorburg

CHP plant comes from?

This is entirely down to the weather and light conditions.

In fact, what comes out of the chimney stacks is always

the same – steam. If the sun is behind you on a clear day,

the vapour plume is as vividly white as a cumulus cloud;

in other light conditions, it may look anything from darkly

overshadowed to practically as black as a raincloud.

Around 170 people work at Moorburg power plant, 70 of them in

shifts to keep the plant safely operating around the clock, 365 days

a year. The second-largest group are the 40-odd employees in the

maintenance workshop. Fifteen engineers work in plant management

and the technical office. The remaining employees work in areas such

as administration, supplies and disposal, process planning, operational

management, health and safety, fire protection and environmental

protection. There are also around 200 contract employees in ongoing

service at the power plant.

The coal used at Moorburg CHP plant is mainly im-

ported from Russia and the USA. During the commis-

sioning period, coal from Poland and South Africa was

also used. In 2017, coal from Norway was bought in for

the first time.

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Gudrun Bode Moorburg Visitor Centre

4… that the CHP plant supplies pro-

cess steam to industry?

Moorburg power plant became a CHP plant in October 2016:

since then, some of the available heat has been supplied to a

neighbouring refinery as process steam. Moorburg power plant

was designed to generate both electricity and heat. With re-

gards to the environment, it is a good idea to make use of the

heat generated during electricity production. What is already

a high fuel utilisation rate of 45 per cent could be increased to

around 60 per cent by providing district heating. Components

enabling a district heating capacity of up to 450 megawatts

are already thermally installed at Moorburg CHP plant.

… what causes the most noise during normal

power plant operation?

Noise measurements identified the alarm that sounds when

the big ship unloaders start up as the loudest noise emis-

sion from the power plant that can be heard outside. The

volume of this alarm is a specified regulatory requirement.

In the Moorburg district of Hamburg, however, it cannot

be heard, as there are two large boiler halls between the

quayside and the city area. Nevertheless, and depending

on the wind direction, we do have to disturb the residents

of Moorburg every Wednesday at noon when we test our

alarm systems for a few seconds – but this, too, is pre-

scribed by official regulations.

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Do you want to take a look inside a CHP plant? Take part of our guided tours!Our extensive FAQ with answers to all sorts of questions relating to Moorburg CHP plant

and more can be viewed at www.heizkraftwerk-moorburg.de.

T +49 (0)40 570 11 32 00moorburg@vattenfall.deMoorburger Schanze 2

21079 Hamburg, Germany

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A tradition of engaging in dialogueEven while Moorburg power plant was still just

one of Hamburg’s biggest construction sites, cu-

rious visitors could come along to find out about

the project and follow its progress. The temporary

information centre set up during construction was

replaced by a permanent visitor center, which is

now an integral part of the power plant site.

Open for questions From power plant technology to the fish pass –

get the answers to all your questions here. True-

to-scale models help to explain and understand

the power plant technology. After the theory, then

get a practical feel for it on a guided tour.

Interested? Get in touch with us if you would like to see it all

for yourself on a guided tour of the power plant.

We look forward to your visit.

Welcome to Moorburg CHP

plant

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January

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Vattenfall GmbHÜberseering 12

22297 Hamburg

www.vattenfall.de/moorburg

www. heizkraftwerk-moorburg.de

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