Overhead lines to disappear
31.03.2016
Stromnetz Berlin invests and creates essential conditions for urban building projects.
Stromnetz Berlin invests and creates essential conditions for urban building projects.
The distribution system operator Stromnetz Berlin currently has a 110 kV high-voltage power line located between the substation in Wuhlheide and the network nodes in Thaerstraße in Friedrichshain. Between the substation in Wuhlheide and Schlichtallee (District of Lichtenberg), these lines are overhead power lines. During a joint on-site inspection, Berlin's Senator for Urban Development and the Environment, Andreas Geisel, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stromnetz Berlin, Thomas Schäfer, today announced that this overhead power line will be dismantled by spring 2018 and replaced with full underground cabling.
v.l.: Andreas Geisel, Thomas Schäfer
Overhead power line in Berlin-Karlshorst
Civil engineering works to bury the necessary high-voltage cable have already started. The overhead power line will then be gradually dismantled in several phases. A total of 16 to 40 metre high and more than 20 metre wide high-voltage pylons will be dismantled over a route length of four kilometres. In total, this project will cost Stromnetz Berlin EUR 7.45 million.
"Dismantling the overhead power lines and associated underground cabling is one of the most outstanding investments in the sustainable electricity grid in our city," says Thomas Schäfer, who also emphasised that "essential preconditions will be created here for urban development in this area."
With reference to the growing city of Berlin and a reliable infrastructure, Andreas Geisel empha-sised: "Power lines are the lifelines of our city, but overhead lines do not fit in with Berlin. Dismantling the high-voltage pylons will not only improve the cityscape, but we will also be creating desperately needed space for new housing. Stromnetz is paving the way with the cabling of this section and I hope that the dismantling of further overhead power lines will soon follow."
In close dialogue with the District of Lichtenberg, Stromnetz Berlin and investors in adjoining land, an appropriate solution has been found for this area that takes into account the interests of all parties involved. Dismantling the overhead power line also gives the company NCC the freedom to carry out a building project in Blockdammweg. This dismantling measure is also a positive sign for the development of further land along route of the previous power line.
During his time in office as councillor responsible for construction in Lichtenberg, the current Senator for Urban Development and the Environment, Andreas Geisel set out the policy goal of cabling existing overhead power lines. Stromnetz Berlin is committed to achieving this goal: by the mid-2030s, all existing overhead power lines will have disappeared from the cityscape. Dismantling measures in Wuhlheide/Schlichtallee, which accounts for about eight per cent of the still existing overhead system, is an important step.
In the coming decade, Stromnetz Berlin company investments will total about EUR 1.6 billion, says Thomas Schäfer, as the long-term outlook. "We want to make Berlin more attractive as a business and science location with a secure, reliable and smart electricity supply."