Ground-breaking ceremony for new plant on Karl-Marx-Strasse

Stromnetz Berlin invests €78 million in an upgrade for the power grid in Neukölln

26.03.2026 

Ever since the Seventies, there has been a large power supply plant on Karl-Marx-Strasse in the Berlin-Neukölln district. Since its inception, the site has been updated with all the technical grid innovations and has undergone several rebuilds. Stromnetz Berlin is now building a new plant at this site to replace the existing facility, without any operational downtime. The ground-breaking ceremony for this project took place on 26 March. The new plant is scheduled to enter operation by 2031 and will then by supplying tens of thousands of households and commercial customers in the district. Specialist civil engineering work has already started. 

Dr Stefan Rolauffs, Head of Grid Development at Stromnetz Berlin, said at the laying of the foundation stone: “Stromnetz Berlin is part of Berlin society and we wish to continue to make our many traditional locations in the city fit for the future. In Neukölln, we are investing €78 million in a new grid node and our focus is on innovative and environmentally friendly technology. This new grid node brings us a step closer to our goal of expanding our distribution grid to meet the growing demand for electricity in Berlin”. 

Neukölln's district councillor for urban development, environment and transport, Jochen Biedermann, emphasised: “The Neukölln district office works closely with Stromnetz Berlin on several levels: On the one hand, of course, in day-to-day business when it comes to expanding and renewing the pipeline infrastructure, but also with the aim of enabling major projects, ones that are absolutely necessary to strengthen our critical infrastructure”. 

Until the early Fifties, this site was home to a factory that manufactured buses and trams. Since that time, it has been rebuilt and converted on several occasions. Stromnetz Berlin will therefore be conducting a ground survey and also plans to remove old foundations. Another challenge during construction is the proximity to the tunnel of the U7 underground line. Stromnetz Berlin is in close dialogue with the BVG to prevent damage. 

The building will have a clinker brick facade. The stairwells are made of dark clinker brick to differentiate them, establishing a visual contrast to the lighter-coloured facade surfaces. Construction work will commence in 2027. In the interests of sustainability, around a third of the building ensemble will be preserved and used in the long term. Stromnetz Berlin is also excavating a trench in place of old garages to enable rainwater to seep away on site in a controlled manner. The new plant will also be partially greened and equipped with a solar power system.

The shell will be completed by the end of 2027. Work on the facade is due to start in 2028 when work on fitting out the interior work will also commence. A year after that, installation of the system technology will begin. After commissioning at the end of 2031 and subsequent disconnection of all cable connections from the old plant by the end of 2033, the old plant technology will then start getting decommissioned and stripped out.

Further information about this project can be found at www.stromnetz.berlin.