WesWorld

This concern is headquartered in the city of Hamburg, and is the principal electricity supplier in the western portions of the province of Lower Saxony, the cities of Bremen and Hamburg, and the province of Schleswig-Holstein.

It originated as Siemens Elektrische Betriebe AG, a subsidiary of the great electrical firm Siemens und Halske. In 1925 it was reorganised and its capital increased through the participation of the provincial governments and a consortium of banks. It acquired several municipal generating and distribution systems serving cities in the region and embarked upon a major construction program of thermal generating stations.

Among its present powerplants are:

Kraftwerk Herrenwyk (Lübeck) – constructed between 1909 and 1912, and expanded between 1940 and 1942; present generating capacity 120 Megawatts

Kraftwerk Unterweser (Bremen) – constructed between 1924 and 1928 with an initial generating capacity of 25 Megawatts; this has now been increased to 150 Megawatts

Kraftwerk Wilhelmsburg (Hamburg) – constructed between 1926 and 1930 with an initial generating capacity of 40 Megawatts; this has now been increased to 120 Megawatts

Torfkraftwerk Wiesmoor – constructed between 1909 and 1912, expanded in 1922; present generating capacity 16 Megawatts. This is one of the few thermal generating stations in Germany fueled by peat.

This parastatal enterprise came into being in March 1921 to take ownership of former Prussian state interests in existing electric generating facilities and distribution networks and certain other electro-industrial plants erected by the Imperial government during the Great War. Through investment, acquisition, and joint ventures it subsequently has grown to be one of the largest electric utilities in the Reich.

Initially its activities brought together the facilities of the Großkraftwerk Hannover AG, the Großkraftwerk Main-Weser AG, and the Preussische Kraftwerke Oberweser AG. At this time it operated two thermal power stations, Borken in Hesse and Ahlem in Hanover, and eight hydroelectric stations – Hemfurth I and II, Krotzenburg, Kesselstadt, Mainkur, Werrawerk, Helminghausen, and Dörverden.

Großkraftwerk Trattendorf, located at Spremberg, constructed by the Prussian War Ministry between 1915 and 1917, was transferred to the control of Vereinigte Elektrizitäts-und Bergwerks in 1922. This facility, with a designed capacity of 60 megawatts, supplied power to a plant (Düngemittelfabrik Spremberg) for the production of synthetic fertilizers from nitrogen, ammonia and calcium carbide.

Großkraftwerk Zschornewitz, located near Wittenberg, constructed by the Prussian War Ministry between 1914 and 1917, was transferred to the control of the Vereinigte Elektrizitäts-und Bergwerks in 1921. This facility, with a designed capacity of 100 megawatts, supplied power to the Aluminiumwerk Bitterfeld via high tension transmission line.

During the 1920s the enterprise entered into share exchange agreements with a number of electric utilities throughout the Reich, including: the Braunkohlen-Schwel-Kraftwerk Hessen-Frankfurt AG, with the Wölfersheim thermal power station; the Braunschweigische Kohlen-Bergwerke AG, with the Helmstedt thermal power station; the Hannover-Braunschweigische Stromversorgungs AG; the Nordwestdeutsche Kraftwerke AG, with the Lübeck-Siems thermal power station; the Schleswig-Holsteinische Stromversorgungs AG, with power stations in the cities of Flensburg, Kiel and Neumünster. The Vereinigte Elektrizitäts-und Bergwerks took a half interest in the Großkraftwerke Schleswig-Holstein; the Thüringer Gasgesellschaft AG; the Überlandwerke und Straßenbahnen Hannover AG; and Westpreussische Überlandwerke Marienwerder AG, with the Marienwerder thermal power station. In 1931 the Vereinigte Elektrizitäts-und Bergwerks acquired the assets of the Märkische Elektrizitätswerke AG, including its thermal power stations at Plessa ad at Finkenheerd, the latter having a capacity of 270 Megawatts. As a result of this extensive activity and expansion was that by 1937 the annual electricity output of Vereinigte Elektrizitäts-und Bergwerks exceeded one billion kilowatt-hours.

The subsequent decade has seen completion of the Heyden thermal power station near Peterhagen, with a capacity of 120 megawatts, the Duisburg-Walsum thermal power station with a capacity of 60 megawatts, and the Industriekraftwerk Deuben, with a capacity of 80 megawatts.