Siemens Smart Infrastructure is making an additional investment in its Frankfurt site with site expansion. Specifically, the company acquired 3.5-hectare site with existing buildings in Frankfurt’s Ostend district.

This will provide Siemens with additional capacity. Thus, ensuring a secure energy transformation. The announcement coincided with the inauguration of a new high-speed warehouse and expanded production area at its switchgear plant in Frankfurt-Fechenheim. Incidentally, the production in the new buildings will likely start at the start of 2025.

Expanded Facility for Switchgear

The property on Daimlerstraße is around one kilometer from the existing switchgear plant on Carl-Benz-Straße. Accordingly, the production halls will take approximately 13,000sq.m of the total 15,000sq.m. building area. Office spaces will take the remaining space. The site has both rail and port access.

Siemens Real Estate executed the transaction in close cooperation with the Frankfurt Economic Development Agency. Together, the two production facilities will make up the Frankfurt switchgear plant and form a closely integrated unit.

Following the purchase of the site, Siemens will have more capacity for the production of its SF6-free 8DAB – blue GIS medium-voltage switchgear. This gas-insulated switchgear will complement demands in transformer and switching stations and uses the climate-neutral Clean Air insulating medium. This consists exclusively of natural components of the ambient air. Therefore, this demonstrates Siemens’ commitment to moving away from sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and producing sustainable medium-voltage switchgear.

As a result, Siemens is focusing on technologies that reduce carbon emissions and create sustainable grids for future generations.

Growing Investments

“For 40 years now, our plant in Frankfurt-Fechenheim has been a global center of competence for gas-insulated medium-voltage switchgear,” says Mark Backhaus, Site Manager of the Siemens switchgear plant in Frankfurt. “Our second expansion in a short period of time is an investment in our future and paves the way for climate-neutral power distribution.”

Only last year, Siemens invested 30 million euros in the existing switchgear plant in Frankfurt. This includes the construction of a new smart high-speed warehouse, the PowerTower, as well as the expansion of the production areas.

In addition, the new plant buildings will carry sustainable design. Particularly, the purchased buildings on Daimlerstraße already conform with the DGNB Gold sustainability seal.

“Our additional investment in the site will enable us to open a plant with a sustainable and future-proof infrastructure,” says Stephan May, CEO of Electrification & Automation at Siemens Smart Infrastructure. “Sustainability and the objective of achieving a carbon-neutral supply chain is a key element of our strategy…This promise is reflected in our latest investment.”

Since its establishment 40 years ago, the Frankfurt switchgear plant has driven the electrification of infrastructure and, as a result, the growth of business and industry. Thus, the expansion of the Frankfurt plant continues this and paves the way toward achieving a secure energy transformation using innovative Siemens technologies.

24 June 2024