Expansion plan

Eleven billion euros for a green electricity and gas grid

Austria aims to have a CO2-free energy supply by 2040. For the first time, there is now a precise plan on how the electricity and gas grids need to be expanded in order to make optimum use of wind and solar power, hydrogen, etc. This will cost eleven billion euros, which will have to be paid by consumers.

Specifically, nine billion euros will flow into the high-voltage electricity grid. Major projects include around 430 kilometers of new lines, 70 transformer stations and 25 substations. "Renewable electricity is increasingly being generated in eastern Austria by photovoltaics and wind turbines and needs to be transported to the west, for example to pumped storage power plants. In addition, there are expansion routes such as in the Enns Valley, where voestalpine will operate its steelworks in Donawitz with electric furnaces in future," explains Gerhard Christiner, head of grid operator APG.

In fact, thanks to the sunny and windy weekend, much more green electricity is currently being generated in eastern Austria than can be transmitted. In the first quarter, Austria covered a total of 87 percent of its demand with its own green electricity, a record figure, beams Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler.

300 kilometers of new pipelines for biogas and hydrogen
In the case of gas, energy from Russia must increasingly be replaced by domestic biomethane (from agricultural waste, etc.) and hydrogen. 1400 kilometers of existing pipelines can be converted for this purpose, plus a further 300 kilometers of new pipelines to connect the resulting hydrogen production in northern Burgenland, for example, with large consumers in industry. Bernhard Painz from gas network operator AGGM estimates that this will cost two billion euros.

The new "Austrian Grid Infrastructure Plan" is intended to coordinate all of this and handle it cost-effectively. The costs will be paid by consumers via the respective grid fees, which are part of the electricity and gas bills. Consumers will feel the impact, but it will be spread over many years and is therefore manageable.

The second advantage of the plan is that the specific projects it contains are defined as "public interest" and have already undergone a preliminary environmental assessment. This should make the expansion projects possible more quickly, as the time until 204o is already extremely short, according to Gewessler.