Weinviertel line

In the future, the new 380-kV Weinviertel line will run from Seyring to the Zaya substation, which will be rebuilt in connection with the project. At the Zaya substation, a new connection will be made to the 110-kV grid in Lower Austria and to a 220-kV connection extending to the border with the Czech Republic.

APG's new Weinviertel line to replace the existing 220-kV line must be subjected to an official approval procedure pursuant to the 2000 Environmental Impact Assessment Act (Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfungsgesetz 2000, UVP-G 2000). The Lower Austria state government is responsible for the approval process, since the planned line will be located exclusively in Lower Austrian territory.

APG must therefore show that the line meets the statutory requirements for the protection of people and nature upon submitting the project for official review. Experts in 24 fields carried out inspections on the site of the planned project for the purpose of drawing up the detailed project planning documents.

This necessitated accessing private property along the planned line in some cases. The Lower Austrian state authorities granted APG a preliminary works approval notice in April 2015 as the legal basis for conducting the inspections.

Taking the initially planned cooridor as the basis, the corridor was fine-tuned step-by-step over the following 14 months until the current route of APG's Weinviertel line was finalised. In planning the route, the following criteria were of particular importance to APG and its employees:

• the involvement of communities, property owners and other local stakeholders in the planning process;
• consideration of all environmental or conservation interests relating to people and nature; and
• connections with the existing infrasturcture (Lower Austrian grid's 110-kV line, wind farms, etc.).

In addition, the many in-person discussions that APG project employees held with representatives of the communities along the route, the property owners affected and neighbouring parties were a crucial part of the overall planning process. This was the only way to come up with potential improvements to the proposed route plan and to discuss them with the parties involved at a local level. Many of the suggestions from the community and the property owners were incorporated into the plans and are now reflected in the probable route of APG's Weinviertel line replacement. 

It is of great importance to Austrian Power Grid?AG (APG) that individual stakeholders be informed at an early stage during the entire duration of the “APG Weinviertel line replacement” project.

Of particular significance is involving the public in the route development process, providing comprehensive information on the individual project steps, ensuring open communication and working together constructively with members of the public and their political representatives.

The project team began initiating personal contact with the property owners at the same time the info letter was sent. To ensure that the process would be as simple as possible with direct contact and support during the entire duration of the project, the project area was divided into five sections, with each section being assigned to an APG employee as the direct contact person for the property owners. The contact information of the APG contact person responsible for each section was supplied to all property owners in the initial info letter.

One of the main requests received during the many discussions with property owners, neighbouring parties and community representatives during the planning phase related to optimising the placement of the pylons as well as the route. The discussions were successful in identifying potential improvements that could be taken into consideration in the route now defined.

At the end of the planning phase, all of the communities affected by APG’s Weinviertel line replacement were invited to a consultation day at which information was provided to all interested parties. Local residents were invited to attend the consultation day in their community through flyers circulated by bulk mail or ads in community newspapers, while property owners were sent individual letters.

In addition, a project folder containing information on each of the project phases was made available to interested parties. 

In principle, a plot of land can be claimed either by a mast site itself or by an overvoltage - in this case, only the conductor cables and the associated servitude area pass over the plot of land. How the claimed agricultural and forestry areas are compensated is regulated uniformly for all landowners in the APG guideline. Ensuring a uniform procedure and equal treatment of all landowners is a top priority for APG.

The guideline regulates the calculation of the amount of compensation for the easement agreements to be concluded with the landowners under private law and by mutual agreement. The guideline of APG ensures a uniform, appropriate and cooperative approach to land claims for the replacement construction of the APG wine district pipeline and is divided into 3 sub-areas:

• agricultural land
• forestry land
• general

If the area claimed is an agriculturally used and dedicated plot of land, the compensation fee is determined on the basis of the guideline. The different market values in the project region are also taken into account.

If the area claimed is a forest that has to be felled in the course of the construction of the pipeline or during operation, the amount of the compensation payment is assessed by an expert on the basis of the guideline. The valuation is carried out according to recognized methods of forest value calculation.

APG also undertakes to compensate for the damage to land resulting from the construction of the pipeline in accordance with the "Compensation Guideline for the Utilization of Agricultural and Forestry Land" issued by the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is made in an integrated approval process. That means that once an application for approval of a project is submitted, the responsible EIA authority (the Lower Austrian state government) proceeds to apply all substantive laws relevant to the project in an integrated procedure. The EIA authority then decides on the eligibility of the project for approval. In making the decision, extremely strict criteria are applied regarding the impact on people and nature.

Work to dismantle the existing line began in the summer of 2022. Some of the work will require the use of an auto crane or a helicopter, depending on local conditions. Thus the dismantling operation may lead to noise disturbances from time to time. The work to dismantle the old line will be completed by the spring of 2023.

After the line has been dismantled, APG will have the corresponding easements deleted from the respective property registers. This could take several months, however, depending on the land registry in question.