Datteln power plant: Power for the railway, district heating for the city

The Datteln power plant, with its blocks 1 – 3 sitting directly on the banks of the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal in Meckinghoven, is located close to the B 235, the major road that leads the traffic through Datteln. For over 40 years now, hard coal has been converted into electricity for the railway and it has also produced district heating by means of combined heat and power. With a total of 303 MW, today, the Datteln power plant is one of the largest units to supply the German Railway with the single-phase alternating current and a frequency of 16.7 Hertz that is required by the railway for its trains.

Since the beginning of 1964, the Datteln power plant has also been supplying district heating to the town area and, today, with an output of 87 MWt, supplies almost 50 percent of the room heat needs of the city of Datteln.

Energy production is hard work. Even for the Datteln power plant. We make it our business to provide energy when it is required. We can achieve this only if technology and man-power work in perfect harmony with one another at all times. The Datteln power plant employs around 100 people. The safe operation of the power plant is guaranteed around the clock using five shift groups. Our employees all have a high level of knowledge and experience, are very reliable and highly motivated.

Safe energy production from coal

Power – even railway power – must always be ready for action when it is required. Because power requirements fluctuates during the course of the day, some power plants run only periodically. This isn’t the case at the Datteln power plant. As a railway power plant, it is used by the DB Energie AG as a basic load power plant and therefore achieves around 6,700 operating hours per year.
At full output, approximately 120 tons of indigenous hard coal and imported coal from different countries is burned per hour in the burners of the Datteln power plant. Up to three trains supply the coal each day. A warehouse with a capacity of 50,000 tons ensures that there are no bottlenecks in the supply of fuel at any time. In 2006, the Datteln power plant burnt around 7,000,000 tons of hard coal. This generated around 1,850 GWh power and capproximately 146 GWh heat.

We are the fire and flame of efficient energy production

In order to achieve an as high as possible degree of efficiency from the coal that is to be burned, before it is blown into the boiler, it is pulverized to dust and then dried with hot air. The coal dust is then blown into the boiler through 12 burners, where, at temperatures of around 1,250 °C in the melting chamber boiler and at around 1,400 °C in the dry firing, the hot flue gases are generated. These heat the water that flows into the boiler through countless pipes: the boiler feed-water. The arising steam is heated up to 535 °C and, at a pressure of up to 215 bar, is channeled to the blades of a three-stage turbine. The turbine is connected to the generator and the mechanical (rotating movement of the turbine) energy is converted into electrical energy. This creates electricity in a similar way to a bicycle dynamo – however, at 1,000 rpm the 16.7 Hertz railway power is supplied via transformers and an outdoor substation to the network of the German Railway.