The Austrian Bundesforste trade electricity from hydropower via the Next Pool

Forstaubach, Hallstatt, Kainischtaun and Schallau - these are the names of the four Austrian hydroelectric power plants that will contribute their energy to the Virtual Power Plant from 2021. The operator of the small hydropower plants are the Austrian Bundesforste. Since 2006, they have been generating energy from water with small hydroelectric power plants. Currently, the Bundesforste operate eight such sustainable electricity producers - four of which Next Kraftwerke has now added to its pool.

Some of the plants have received investment subsidies from the state, but otherwise they run entirely without subsidies and have to trade their electricity on the free market. Next Kraftwerke is now taking on this task. The Virtual Power Plant forecasts the electricity production and trades the green electricity with an optimized marketing strategy on various electricity markets. In this way, Next Kraftwerke enables the Bundesforste to offer electricity on the spot market and the futures market.

Hydro power plant operated by the Austrian Bundesforste

During construction, the Bundesforste not only had sustainable electricity production in mind, but they also designed the hydroelectric power plants to fit into the landscape. The use of land, for example, was kept to a minimum and the design of the buildings was adapted to the respective townscape and landscape. The small hydroelectric power plants produce about 74 million kWh annually, which is the average annual demand of almost 18,500 households.

Specifications

Forstaubach	Annual Production 6,500 MWh	Nominal Power 1,650 kW
Hallstatt	Annual Production 22,000 MWh	Nominal Power 4,300 kW
Kainischtaun	Annual Production 12,500 MWh	Nominal Power 3,800 kW
Schallau	Annual Production 1,250 MWh	Nominal Power 320 kW

Source and Credit: Bundesforste