04/19/2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
The course of the power line southeast link through Thuringia and Saxony is fixed. Over it, wind power electricity from the north and east of Germany to Bavaria to be transported.
For Thuringia and Saxony, it is certain where the cables for the power route southeast link to be laid. The transmission system operator 50 Hertz presented its plans in Gera. The documents are complete and are to be submitted to the Federal Network Agency at the end of next week, said project manager Sandra Eickhoff-Kehr, who is responsible for the approval.
The approximately 540-kilometer-long route is expected to be used to transport electricity from Wolmirstedt in Saxony-Anhalt to Isar in Bavaria, where the Isar 2 nuclear power plant has been feeding in power, from 2027. In a second project, electricity from Klein Rogahn near Schwerin will also be transported to the south via the southeast link. Both lines will be able to transmit up to 4,000 MW at a voltage of 525 kV. 50 Hertz is responsible for planning in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia.
"The extra-high voltage direct current transmission project is a key project in the energy transition," Eickhoff-Kehr said. Direct current, she said, is particularly suitable for overcoming long transport distances without major losses. The transmission grids are of central importance, he said, because electricity is increasingly no longer generated where it is mainly needed.
On the home stretch
With the planned line route in Thuringia and Saxony, the operator said it is now "on the home stretch." In 2015, it had been stipulated by law that the power cables should run exclusively underground, which delayed the completion date by years. Since 2016, the planning team has been in communication with the owners of the land, according to the company. These will remain in their possession even after the cables have been laid and should be able to be used as before - including for agriculture. A study by scientists from the University of Halle has shown that the heat emitted by the cables has no influence on the soil moisture in the area of the route, the operator said.
The Federal Network Agency had initially defined a 1,000-meter-wide corridor. In it, various route variants had been examined, it said. About 50 proposals for alternatives had been analyzed and some of them implemented, it said. After extensive examinations and the weighing of environmental, technical and economic aspects, the route now presented is the best solution from the point of view of the planning team, said Eickhoff-Kehr.
The line at a depth of about 1.40 meters reaches Thuringia northeast of Eisenberg and runs through the Thuringian Vogtland region past Gera, Weida and Greiz. Near Pausa, it reaches the Vogtland region of Saxony and passes through Rosenbach and Reuth before crossing into Bavaria at Gefell in Thuringia.
After the application has been reviewed by the Federal Network Agency, it will be made public. Even then, it will still be possible to submit comments, Eickhoff-Kehr said. The operator will provide information about the exact plans and the next steps at public events in Hermsdorf, Leubnitz and Greiz in the coming week. A decision by the Federal Network Agency is expected next year. Construction work is also expected to start then.
Delays also for Südlink
Another important energy transition project is the Südlink link, which is to bring 2,000 MW of wind power electricity from Schleswig-Holstein to Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg respectively. Here, too, the feed-in points are at the shutdown nuclear power plants Grafenrheinfeld near Schweinfurt and Neckarwestheim near Heilbronn.
The link is around 700 kilometers long, and the lines run parallel over long stretches. As with the southeast link, completion was originally planned for the shutdown of the last nuclear reactors at the end of 2022. However, opposition to the construction of overhead lines forced the project to be rescheduled for underground cabling, leading to delays lasting several years and a multiplication of costs to 10 billion euros. Currently, there is talk of commissioning in 2028.
Authors: DPA and Günter Drewnitzky
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