Datteln Power Station

Datteln Power Station is a modern coal-fired thermal power station in Datteln, Recklinghausen, 12 km north of Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It comprises four units with a total capacity of approximately 1,419 MW gross. Units 1-3 were built between 1964 and 1969 and were decommissioned in 2014. A notable characteristic of this power station is the fact that the most recently built unit, Unit 4, does not have a waste gas flue. Instead, the desulphurised flue gases are expelled using the updraught from the existing cooling tower. The power station is operated by Uniper.
The plant employs about 200 full-time workers and 300 external jobs.

History

About 6,300 people participated in the construction of Unit 4.
In 2025, Uniper agreed to sell Unit 4 to commodity trader and investment company ResInvest Group, as part of a set of measures required by the European Commission in exchange for approving the German government's 13.5 billion euro bailout of Uniper in 2022.

Technology

In addition to electrical power, Unit 4 also delivers 1,000 GWh_th yearly of district heating energy, a supply sufficient for 100,000 households in the Castrop-Rauxel and Dortmund-Bodelschwingh areas. Of Unit 4's 1,052 MW net generation capacity, 413 MW are delivered to the Deutsche Bahn grid, powering its railway system. The 50 Hz electricity is converted into 16.7 Hz frequency for the train system and fed to Deutsche Bahn's 110kV high-voltage grid.
The plant's area is separated into two sections, 11 ha on left side and 57 ha on the right side of the Dortmund–Ems Canal, which is used to deliver hard coal by barges. Closed conveyor belts then transport the fuel to the coal storage facility. Closed conveyor belts also transport the coal to the coal bunker, from which it is ground to a fine powder using five coal pulverisers. The fine powder is dried using hot air and then blown into the combustion chamber. Burning occurs at, boiling water into steam, which is then passed into the high pressure turbines, followed by a medium pressure and two low-pressure turbines. The turbines rotate at 3,000 revolutions per minute, the same speed as the generator. Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems supplied the steam generator. The boiler is made of a high creep rupture strength material, achieving reheat live steam temperatures over. Alstom supplied the steam turbine set, the same 1,100 MW set planned for the scrapped Unit 6 at Staudinger power plant and a proposed Port of Antwerp power plant in Belgium.
Unit 4 is equipped with an advanced multi-step flue gas purification system, which eliminates nitrogen oxides, dust and sulphur from the flue gas. Nitrogen oxide is washed first, followed by dust and finally sulphur.

Unit Information

The Power Station consists of 4 units, of which only Unit 4 is operational.

Unit	Fuel	Net Output	Commissioned	Decommissioned
1	Hard Coal	95 MW	1964	Feb 2014
2	Hard Coal	95 MW	1965	Feb 2014
3	Hard Coal	116 MW	1969	Feb 2014
4	Hard Coal	1052 MW	2020	2038