The Amsterdam-Rhine Channel is a 72 km long connection between the Rhine river and the IJ-bay near Amsterdam. The Channel forms the connection between the Amsterdam harbor and the Ruhr area in Germany and is the most intensively navigated channel in the world.
The main functions of the Channel are to:
-
Maintain the necessary water depth for navigation,
-
Provide freshwater supply for regional water uses,
-
Drain the necessary quantities of water from the catchment area,
-
Provide ecologically sound conditions, and
-
Discharge ‘large’ quantities in case of high river flows.
The most important regional uses concern drinking water, regional water management and ecology and cooling and process water.
Along the Amsterdam-Rhine Channel three major power plants use water for cooling purposes. The Lage Weide plant, the Merwede Kanaal plant and the Diemen plant have a combined capacity of around 1.5 GW. The Diemen plant is part of a district heating system, conveying 250 MW to meet thermal energy needs in a nearby residential area. The cooling water discharge of those plants still delivers up to 500 MW of thermal power, sometimes heating the water to undesirable conditions.
Back to the Case Study Description