Riga's First Power Plant "Andrejsale"

The first thermal power plant in Riga, which has been in operation for a little over 100 years and supplied Riga with heat and electricity.

First a historical overview, then photographs.

More than a hundred years ago, at the beginning of the 20th century, the question of Riga's electrification became acute. In November 1901 the Riga City Council granted a loan of 8000 roubles for the design of a city-wide power plant (prior to this there had been small private power plants owned by wealthy industrialists).

The cogeneration plant was located so that it could be easily supplied with fuel. Andrejsale, the island of St. Andrews, near which Riga's cargo port is located, was the best choice for this purpose.

The engineer Oskar von Miller, the founder of Deutsche Edison - Gesellschaft für Angewandte Elektrizität, which today is known as AEG, undertook the design of the technical structures.

The building owes its beautiful architecture to Carl Johan Felsko, one of the most notable masters of eclecticism in Riga.

Construction of the Riga city CHP building was completed in the summer of 1904, and already in September assembly of the machines and boilers began.

The CHP was officially opened on May 14, 1905. On that day the head of Riga George Armitstead signed the decision to put the plant into operation.

The cogeneration plant produced a capacity of 1,482 kW. This is nothing by today's standards, but at that time it was the largest not only in Latvia but also in the entire Baltic region. Thanks to the power plant, electric lighting was introduced in residential buildings and institutions throughout the city center. The first 20 electric lights were also installed on Aleksandra Boulevard (now Brīvības Boulevard).

In 1958 and 1974 the Soviet Union built two additional thermal power plants in Riga, which were many times greater in capacity than the Andrejsale thermal power plant. Later they were repaired when Latvia joined the EU. If interested, it is possible to read more on the Latvenergo website.

In 2006 it was decided to close the cogeneration plant due to its low capacity and heavy wear and tear. For some time the shops stood idle, gradually attracting the attention of metal hunters and looters. There were many proposals to give the plant's main building a second life, but they were never implemented. In the end, a paintball club bought part of the space, and a Latvian energy museum was organized in the former staff house. I will tell you about it briefly, and then we will move on to a tour of the facility.

The museum in Andrejsale is gradually moving to its main site next to the Kegums hydropower plant, so hurry to make time. Inside you can see electricians' work tools, helmets, various measuring devices, metering equipment, including electricity meters made at the VEF factory (now dead), a collection of high voltage insulators (some of which were made at the Kuznetsov Porcelain and Faience Factory in Riga). The tour guide can include a film about the course of construction of the Kegum Hydroelectric Power Plant and show you archival documents and photographs. It so happened that when I was exploring the TPP, I went into the museum itself, talked to the tour guide, and then happened to give a tour to two Norwegians myself.

So, a power plant! Let's pretend that we are employees. We left the staff house, walked 20 meters, and entered the main entrance of the plant.

Just near the entrance is the control room.

It has undergone changes with the development of technology.

Let's go up higher.

Here are the glass cubes and barrels of sulfuric acid for creating the battery cells.

And here is the battery room itself. Through the sleeves in its wall once ran wires to the main workshop.

Now we come out to the fully abandoned part.

From here you can get to the paintballers to look at the remaining steam turbine and generator. The turbine was made by the German company AEG and the generator was manufactured at the plant in Sverdlovsk.

Don’t remain here for a long time and go back to the boiler room.

The control room for monitoring the processes in the steam boilers.

In the next hall were the generators.

Behind the wall from the generators were the steam boilers. These were gas-powered and were built in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century.

Today the boilers are sold to scrap, but once there was red-hot steam flowing through these metal tubes, spinning the turbines of the generators behind the wall.

The metal sheets are rusted and crunch horribly underfoot.

Boiler sections from below.

A ladder is built around each of the boilers for easy access.

The stairs connect the ground level to the above-ground level and underground level.

Under one of the boilers.

Wandering around for some more through the corridors of the power plant. Somewhere up there were baths for the workers. The heat must have come straight from the boilers.

A view of the shop where we started the tour.

And that's its neighbor.

And here we find the most interesting thing: the survived boiler!

It's about four stories high.

It is one of the first boilers, and it was fueled by coal. You can see the manhole for emptying the ash, through which you can see this very ash.

Around the boiler there are many iron bridges on different levels.

Ladders and passageways.

View from above.

View from below.

Time to breathe after the dusty air with a heavy smell of ash and get out on the roof.

View of the new part of the power plant, built during the Soviet times. The chimney is from those days, too.

And this is the original part of the CHP, designed by Karl Johannes Felsko.

It's a massive construction. Impressive in its scale and geometry.

View of Riga's cargo port and the green paintball court.

A look toward the center of Riga. View of the Riga Mill on the right.

Until we meet again!