Present state of hydro power development in Austria

The austrian electricity is based on a combination of hydro and thermal production with the main contribution coming from hydro power. About 70% of the total Austrian electricity demands is covered by hydro power. Due to its location in the Alps, Austria has an exploitable hydro power potential of approx. 56 TWh/a (including small plants and renewals) of which only about 70% is being used at the moment. Thus there is quite a remarkable potential that is still to be exploited mainly in Tyrol and along the Danube east of Vienna. In order to stimulate the further exploitation of hydro power, fuel costs for oil and gas would have to be noticeably raised at simultaneous reduction of costs for hydro power plants. From the strictly technical point of view, cost reductions - even when reducing safety and availability requirements -are of minor importance. Hydro power plants can never be produced in series production and the same time they are multi-purpose plants serving - apart from electricity generation - also for improving conditions for navigation, bed stabilisation (on the Danube), ground water management, flood prevention, drinking water supply and infrastructure. Thus they are important for the national economy and environmental protection measures account for up to 30% of total plant costs. Accompanying measures are nowadays an absolute must in state-of-the-art power station planning and they have to be paid for. Attempts to reduce the costs should be directed towards cost sharing in view of the plant's multiple advantages: those who draw advantage from the plant should also participate in the financing. So far financial contribution was only made by the Federal Government for the improvement of conditions for navigation on the Danube. In the case of the power station Freudenau the the Republic of Austria provided for ATS 1.5 billion, for previous plants the contribution amounted 30% of total costs. In the case of the joint venture Wolfsthal-Bratislava on the border between Austria and the Slovak Republic a group of Slovakian and Austrian experts fixed the cost ratios for energy, navigation and other uses at 50:30:20