Nussdorf Run-of-River Power Plant at the Danube canal

VERBUND's power plant at Nussdorf is a run-of river power plant situated on the Danube and near the Danube inlet to the Danube canal on the border between the 19th and 20th Vienna districts.

The famous Art Nouveau architect Otto Wagner designed an extraordinary welcome greeting for travellers approaching Vienna from the north along the Danube in the form of the Schemerl bridge in Nussdorf. Between them, the bronze lions guard not only a weir system to protect the Danube Canal from flooding but also a modern hydropower plant.

Twelve Matrix turbines use the gradient of the Danube Canal, which was made sufficiently attractive for generating energy only after construction of the Danube power plant Freudenau. One of them is the StreamDiver research turbine.

Power plant data

Owner: Nußdorf Errichtungs- und Betriebs GmbH & Co KG
Operator: VERBUND Hydro Power GmbH
Commissioning: 2005
Type: Run-of-river power plant
Country: Austria
Region: Vienna
Waters: Danube, Danube Canal
Output: 4,8 MW
Annual output: 28,141 MWh
Turbine: StreamDiver
Connectivity: Fish bypass

We look out at the Nussdorf hydroelectric power station on the Danube Canal in the sunshine.

Technical description

Turbines and generators: Twelve hydro-matrix turbines with impeller diameters of 1.32 metres each and an average head of 3.8 metres have an output of 4.75 MW. Depending on the time of year, a volume of feed water of between 80 and 225 m³/s must be supplied to the Danube Canal, with up to 132 m³/s being possible. The generated energy is tapped at the Heiligenstadt substation of the regional supplier Wienstrom.

Weir system: The power plant does not have its own weir system, but instead, as a “flowed-over power plant”, flaps that are installed on the hollow body. At low water, these flaps are raised to reveal the weir body. During normal and high water, the flaps are flipped over to allow the river to flow completely over the weir body.

Nussdorf at the Danube canal

Hold the ALT key and use the scroll wheel to zoom in on the map.

Use two fingers to zoom in on the map.

Environment & ecology

The fish bypass at Nussdorf was designed to cope with individual specimens of the Wels catfish, a key species of fish in the Danube measuring up to 1.5 metres in length, and overcomes a height difference of around 3.6 metres. It has a length of around 322 metres and consists of 37 migration ponds and a near-natural, open section of channel.

The fish bypass was completed in 2017 and makes it possible for the fish to swim effortlessly around the obstacle posed by the power plant wall.