[2][3] In 1895, Otto Intze, a leading expert of water building in Germany, was commissioned by the government of the Rhenish Provinces to look into the area of Urft and Rur, because it was subject to drought in summer and flooding in winter.

He arrived at the conclusion that the building of dams should be combined with power stations to make the effort economical.

[2][3] It has an installed capacity of 16 MW, used mainly to cover peak demand, usually during morning hours on weekdays.

[3][6] Since 1998 the power station has been the venue for the annual Spannungen chamber music festival, founded by Lars Vogt.

[5][6] The upper floor of the power station is the RWE Industriemuseum [de], a museum showing historic electric appliances and other related features.