Planning for Pradapunt power plant resumed

06.07.2023 - The ‘Wasserkraft Plessur’ project consortium is resuming its plans for a new Pradapunt hydropower plant, which could supply 10,000 households one day and would be an important step in expanding Graubünden’s hydropower capacity.

The new Pradapunt power plant will use the slope of the Plessur between Litzirüti and Pradapunt to produce 42 gigawatt hours of hydropower each year. The new power plant would close the existing gap in the power plant cascade on the Plessur and eliminate the Litzirüti power plant’s discharge fluctuations, which are detrimental to the natural environment.

The ‘Wasserkraft Plessur’ consortium consists of three partners: Arosa Energie, IBC Energie Wasser Chur and Axpo. They had already joined forces and started planning the Pradapunt power plant back in 2014, before suspending the project in 2017 due to the economic outlook. The consortium will now spring back into action, as the framework conditions have improved in recent years.

The consortium is aiming to submit a revised licence application over the course of the coming year. Since the licence and building application procedures will last several years, the earliest the consortium partners could make any investment and construction decisions would be 2027. Actually building the power plant would take around three years.