New combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the site of Berlin’s Reuter West cogeneration plant to provide sustainable electricity and heat for the west of Berlin
Plant to be completed by the end of 2026
The power and district heating supply at the Reuter West cogeneration plant in Berlin is to be converted from coal to climate-neutral energy sources. In order to achieve this goal, Vattenfall Wärme Berlin AG (VWB) has commissioned Kraftanlagen Energies & Services GmbH with Lot 2 of the construction of a new combined heat and power plant. Depending on the demand for electricity and heat, the new plant – consisting of a steam turbine plant and a large heat pump – will be able to flexibly supply the west of Berlin with around 30 MW of electricity or more than 180 MW of heat.
Kraftanlagen was awarded the contract for the basic engineering in July of this year. The company has now also been awarded the overall contract for Lot 2 for the supply of the higher-level plant technology, including the process engineering as well as the electrical and I&C integration of all plant components. The scope of supply also includes a heat pump, which will use the waste heat from the mechanical cooling circuit to feed up to an additional 2 MW of thermal power into Berlin’s district heating network.
The new combined heat and power plant, which is scheduled for completion at the end of 2026, will enable Vattenfall to utilise existing energy sources intelligently. For example, the steam turbine will be operated with steam generated by the incineration of unavoidable waste in the existing waste-to-energy plant of Berliner Stadtreinigung (BSR). The large heat pump system with an average thermal output of 75 MW will utilise the residual heat of the clear water from the nearby Berliner Wasserbetriebe sewage treatment plant as a heat source and raise it to a higher temperature level. Both technologies will thus make an important contribution towards a climate-neutral energy supply for Berlin.
