The Lower Bavarian government issued the planning approval decision for the second and final planning section of the power line between Altheim near Landshut and St. Peter in Lower Austria on 13 August 2024, thus contributing to the full approval of the cross-border project.
„This approval is an important milestone for the security of supply in Bavaria and Austria“, said Tim Meyerjürgens, COO of TenneT, commenting on the significance of the project. „We are modernising this approximately 80-year-old line in order to be able to transport more solar power from Bavaria and at the same time strengthen the exchange of electricity with the Austrian pumped storage power plants. This power line is therefore an important link in the European interconnected grid, which will enable us to better balance out the increasing electricity consumption in both countries and the fluctuating electricity feed-in from photovoltaics. We at TenneT are therefore doing everything we can to put this power line into operation as quickly as possible.“
The replacement of the 380-kV power line is intended to increase the transport capacity of the existing 220-kV line, which was built in the 1940s and is now very outdated, in order to supply up to 6 million people.
In future, the new line will mainly transport photovoltaic electricity produced in Bavaria to Austria and, in return, stored electricity from pumped storage power plants.
Immediate start of construction in the interests of the energy transition
Immediately after approval, TenneT intends to start construction of the line in the currently approved planning section between Adlkofen and Matzenhof in July following initial preparations. Among other things, around 14,000 tonnes of pylon steel and around 1,800 km of conductor cables are ready for the construction section.
The completed replacement structure with a total of 235 pylons is scheduled to go into operation in 2027. The first planning section between Altheim and Adlkofen (district of Landshut), which was approved in summer 2023 and is currently under construction, is due to be completed by the end of this year.
The section from Simbach (district of Rottal-Inn) to the German-Austrian border was approved at the beginning of 2023 and is due to be completed shortly. Once the new pipeline goes into operation in 2027, the existing pipeline will be dismantled.
As part of constructive communication, a „virtuelles Bauforum“ offers interested parties from the affected districts the opportunity to find out about the status of the project. TenneT also provides information about the ongoing project on its project website and its own blog.
