Limmern Pumped Storage Plant

Useful Information

Location:	Auenstrasse 49, 8783 Linthal. (46.8798621, 8.9811950)
Open:	By appointment only. Online booking mandatory. [2025]
Fee:	Erwachsene CHF 20, Kinder CHF 10. [2025]
Classification:	Underground Power Plant
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=2.5 h, Min=6, Max=28.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Rudolf Hug (2019): Jahrhundertwerk im Glarner Kalk, ISBN: 978-3-9524084-7-6.
Address:	Limmern Pumped Storage Plant, Kraftwerke Linth-Limmern AG, Auenstrasse 51, CH-8783 Linthal , Tel: +41-55-285-24-08. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1957	begin of construction of Lake Limmern Dam and the Mutt, Tierfehd and Linthal Power Stations.
1963	Lake Limmern Dam completed.
1968	all power stations operational.
2009	140 MW pumped-storage component between Lake Limmern and Tierfehd Reservoir commissioned.
2010	Linthal 2015 Project started.

Description

The Limmern Pumped Storage Plant is an underground pumped storage plant, which pumps water from the Limmernsee (1857 m asl) up to the Muttsee (2474 m asl). The tour starts and ends in Tierfed. The group takes the funicular railway up to around 1700 m asl. From here a 700 m long access tunnel leads to the machine and transformer caverns and the associated connecting tunnels. There are numerous information boards, videos and explanations by the guide. Topics are the construction of the power station, the most important installations and its operation. The tour is called Vom Wasser zum Strom und umgekehrt (From water to electricity and vice versa).

The tour is offered all year on several days per week. However, the tour interrupts the normal work at the power plant, so there are not that many tours per day. As they are quite flexible and tours are often booked out, please check the website and make a reservation. The tour meets at the entrance of Hotel Tödi, which is easy to find.

This power station is a part of the Linth–Limmern Power Stations, a system of hydroelectric power stations located south of Linthal in the canton of Glarus. The first stage was built in the 1960s and included Lake Limmern Dam and the Mutt, Tierfehd and Linthal Power Stations. It had a capacity of 340 MW. The Linthal 2015 Project included the expansion of Lake Mutt and Tierfehd Reservoir. Also, the Limmern Power Station, a 1,000 MW pumped-storage component between Lake Mutt and Lake Limmern was built. This is the part which is visited on the tour. When the project was completed in 2017 the total installed capacity of the system had increased to 1480 MW.

But more important, the amount of electricity which can be stored increased massively, and so it is possible to store the solar and wind energy when it is collected and put it back into the grid when it is needed. It seems the Swiss have understood the need for storage in a grid with so many sources of variable renewable energy (VRE). In other words: the system allows to store an enormous amount of energy.