EXPLORING H.C. Ørsted 18 Power Station 25 fantastic industries

SEe WWW.25FANTASTISKE.DK The large power station was established to supplement three older electricity works in response to the general uptake of a new energy system of electricity in both factories and private households. Industry was switching from steam engines to elec- tric engines, while in ordinary homes, gas and kerosene lamps were being replaced by electric light bulbs. In 1915-16, ’s growing demand for electricity spurred the City of Copenhagen to establish the new power station on a landfill site by the waterfront in Sydhavn, the south harbour. The station was named after H.C. Ørsted, who had discovered electromagnetism almost a century earlier. Only a part of the site is open to the public, the DieselHouse museum, but the power station may be viewed from the perimeter. fold here 18 // H.C. Ørsted Power Station

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H.C. Ørsted Power københavns elværksvej Station sydhavn Tømmergravsgade 4 2450 COPENHAGN SV www.dongenergy.com

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Power station 04 Diesel engine The power station consists of the boiler house (with chim- was designed by the architects Louis Hygom and Valdemar The sleeping giant, a B&W diesel engine from 1933, is one of neys), which produces steam; the long generator building Schmidt. This classicist-style building consists of three modu- the main attractions at the DieselHouse museum. The engine is where the steam powers the turbo generators; and finally the les, each with four bays. The section between the 2nd and 3rd so big that the building had to be built around it. In fact, for 30 transformer building where alternating current is transformed modules culminates in a tower . The windows are tall and nar- years it was the largest diesel engine in the world, according to into high voltage power. The site also includes an administra- row, and this is accentuated by the tall, deep and white-painted the firm. And it surely represents a pinnacle of Danish techno- tion building, workshops and a reserve engine building. window recesses. This building is monumental, and the power logical achievement in that the internal combustion engine station as a whole stands as a tribute to industry and the was a key technology during the second industrial revolution, 01 Section 1 modern world of 1924. comparable with electricity generation. As recently as in As a result of the First World War, construction of the H.C. 2003, a major power cut in the capital brought the giant out Ørsted Power Station became a costly and protracted affair. 03 Blocks 7 and 8 of retirement and back into service. Today, the aptly named Supply of the machinery was delayed and the new power sta- From the start, extensions were much used, and the massive ’DieselHouse’ has been established as an experience centre tion did not come on stream until 1920, after the war. Section grey and black square blocks from the 1980s and the most with the huge diesel engine as the star attraction. The engine 1 was designed by the architect Andreas Fussing. The genera- recent one in 2003 are no exception. Block 7 is a more recent is started at 11 am on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month. tor building, with its long domed roof in reinforced concrete, gas/oil-fired plant from 1984 consisting of a steam boiler, a is part of the original power station. turbine and exchangers for district heating water with circula- tion pumps. The most recent Block 8 from 2003 consists of 02 Sections 2 and 3 a natural gas fired gas turbine and a gas boiler with an after- Not long after the power station finally opened, the city’s elec- burner, which supplies steam to a joint steam extractor. tricity consumption had shot up again, and by 1924 the power RELATED SITES: station had been extended by a second and then a third sec- tion, making it the largest thermal power station in the whole DieselHouse of Scandinavia. The power station now covered around half Elværksvej 50 59 of ’s electricity consumption. And from 1932, it was 2450 Copenhagen SV 1620 Copenhagen V converted into a CHP plant, simultaneously supplying both www.dieselhouse.dk www.copenhagen.dk electricity and district heating. The huge red boiler-house building, which has come to epitomise the power station,