Swissgrid identifies 31 key projects for grid development to 2040
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Swiss TSO Swissgrid has updated its multi-year plan, Strategic Grid 2040, identifying 31 key grid projects to ensure secure power grid operation.
In its multi-year plan, Swissgrid has identified 31 major grid enhancement and grid expansion projects in the Swiss extra-high-voltage grid that need to be implemented by 2040.
These include 25 existing grid projects that have not yet been carried out in addition to six further grid projects.
The projects fall under three categories:
• Grid enhancement and grid expansion
The existing grid needs to be enhanced (voltage or power increase) over 400km, and new lines must be built over 790km to increase the grid’s power transmission capacity.
• Adjustable transformers
Twenty-one new phase-shifting transformers (PSTs) will be procured and installed to improve the controllability of electricity flows in the grid.
PSTs function like a traffic guidance system, says the TSO in a release. Electricity flows through the grid along the path with the least resistance. PSTs change the resistance of the lines so that the electricity is distributed more evenly across parallel lines, thereby increasing the transport capacity of the grid as a whole.
• Optimising existing infrastructure
As more than two-thirds of the existing grid is more than 60 years old, renovation measures are necessary on around 1,300km.
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The total length of the Swiss transmission grid will remain the same at 6,700km, with 790km of old lines dismantled, if no longer needed, or replaced by new lines.
Swissgrid will invest a total of around CHF5.5 billion (€5.9 billion; $6.5 billion) in the transmission grid by 2040 for the above measures.
Commenting in a release was Nell Reimann, head of market at Swissgrid: “Economic growth, innovation, our everyday comfort – everything depends on a strong grid.
“Swissgrid is preparing the grid for the energy future to keep Switzerland moving. The updated grid plan confirms the grid projects we have already initiated and emphasises the importance of putting them into practice rapidly. It also shows what other projects are needed.”
With their updated development plan, Swissgrid says they are also laying the foundations for connecting more effectively to the surrounding European electricity system by 2040.
Namely, the company cites the ‘supergrid’, an additional direct current grid, which will be created over the next few decades to complement the current European extra-high-voltage grid. The supergrid will be used to transport large volumes of electricity over long distances with minimal losses at lower costs.
Swissgrid and the responsible TSOs from Germany and Italy will conduct a joint study to examine how transfer capacity between the countries can best be increased.
Swissgrid updates its multi-year plan for the expansion of the transmission grid every four years.
Based on future scenarios for the development of generation and consumption, experts simulate where future grid congestion is likely to occur and where there is the greatest need for expansion. They then determine the necessary grid projects.
To conduct this analysis, they coordinate with Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and all the distribution system and power plant operators that are connected to the transmission grid.
