Topping-out ceremony for new Wuhletal substation – state-of-the-art technology for Berlin's electrici-ty grid
13.03.2019
"Stone by stone, brick by brick, the cottage will be finished soon" goes the old German nursery rhyme. Construction work over the last 14 months has been intense, culminating in today's topping-out ceremo-ny for the new Wuhletal substation in the Berlin borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf.
"Stone by stone, brick by brick, the cottage will be finished soon" goes the old German nursery rhyme. Construction work over the last 14 months has been intense, culminating in today's topping-out ceremony for the new Wuhletal substation in the Berlin borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf.
Stromnetz Berlin GmbH, operator of the capital's electricity distribution network, invited government representatives and the companies involved in the construction project to attend the ceremony. "We are well on schedule, and we are very pleased to have been able to win over a hard-working consortium of very capable companies with highly qualified engineers and skilled workers to build the new substation for Stromnetz Berlin", stated Thomas Schäfer, Chairman of the Management Board of Stromnetz Berlin GmbH, in his welcome address at the topping-out ceremony.
Once it is complete in spring 2022, the Wuhletal substation (transformer station) – for which the network operator is spending approximately EUR 23 million to rebuild and integrate into the distribution network – will provide energy to approximately 65,000 household and 3,300 commercial customers in the eastern part of Berlin.
Equipped with state-of-the-art switchgear and control technology, the Wuhletal transformer station will do more than just reduce the risk of power failures; it will also mean very short restoration times in the event of power outages, because the facility is integrated into the central control system of the Berlin electricity grid.
The linchpins of the new substation are a gas-insulated and therefore extremely space-efficient 110 kV high voltage switchgear and an air-tight 10 kV switchgear.
The new building in Marzahn-Hellersdorf is not the only infrastructure project that Stromnetz Berlin is carrying out at the moment: a series of other grid expansion measures, such as the construction of a new 110 kV grid node at Charlottenburg and the ongoing automation of the medium-voltage grid, are underway. The company is spending approximately EUR 194 million on these and other projects to expand and maintain the capital's distribution network in 2019 alone. You can find up to date information on our construction measures at www.stromnetz.berlin/de/investitionen.htm
Topping-out ceremony for new Wuhletal substation