380 kV line St. Peter - Staatsgrenze (Simbach)

The project "380 kV line St. Peter – Staatsgrenze/federal border (Simbach)" covers a length of approx. 3 km on Austrian territory (=APG project area) and connects the grid knot of St. Peter, which is to adapted accordingly, to the substation of Simbach in Germany. The power line on German territory is the responsibility of German transmission grid operator TenneT.

http://www.tennettso.de/pages/tennettso-netzausbau_de/index.htm

Background

As a result of the increased utilisation of renewable energies (wind energy and photovoltaics) and the concomitant expansion of the power grid in Germany as well as that of pumped storage plants in Austria, the existing 220 kV line connections between Austria (grid knot of St. Peter) and Bavaria (substations of Altheim, Pirach and Pleinting) are not sufficient in the medium term; the lines are used to capacity even today. Hence, a new, strong-performance 380 kV connection between St. Peter am Hart (Upper Austria) and Altheim (Germany) will serve to prevent a foreseeable bottleneck between Germany and Austria. The existing 220 kV line St. Peter – Staatsgrenze (Simbach/Altheim) is to be dismantled in the process of construction of the new 380 kV line.

This power line, approx. 60-70 km in length, is to be commissioned by 2020 in order to facilitate the balance between wind power/ photovoltaics in Germany and pumped storage plants in Austria.

Moreover, OMV is planning a combined cycle power plant in Haiming. This power plant is scheduled to go into operation by 2015. In this regard, the first line section Simbach – St. Peter is required for the connection of the new power plant capacity to the European power grid.

www.kraftwerkhaiming.com

In order for the OMV combined cycle power plant to be connected to the power grid in time for the planned commissioning, the 380 kV line route from the grid knot at St. Peter to the substation of Simbach has to be expanded in advance.

In the following, TenneT is planning to further expansion of the 380 kV North-South axis on German territory, namely, from the Simbach substation to the Isar substation.

Project status (Austria)