Lake Kettwig

The creation of Lake Kettwig, the smallest impounded lake of the Ruhrverband with a storage capacity of 1.4 million cubic metres, set the conditions for unobstructed navigation of the lower Ruhr. Between the Kettwig Weir and the bridge across highway A52 in Mintard, the River Ruhr is unimpounded and has been improved to allow inobstructed navigation for pleisure craft and ferries up to a flow rate of 190 cubic metres per second.

In Kettwig, one of Germany's two sector weirs was built. Its hydraulic hoisting system made heavy winding gear superfluous, enabling construction of a new road bridge right above the weir’s pillars.

From an engineering point of view, the transfer of water pressure onto the weir’s foundations is extremely favourable. As a result, the number of river outlets could be limited to two weir sections with a width of 44 metres each. The weir’s water head is used for operating a hydropower plant.

The power plant is equipped with a reverse pump, that can pump water from the Mülheim / Kettwig reach to the Kettwig / Baldeney reach, if required. In 1994, construction of an aeration unit for the Ruhr water began, intended to inject air into the power plant’s turbine intake via a compressor. In 1995, the second turbine was equipped with the same system during a turbine overhaul.