Germany’s Amprion to expedite transmission projects with €22bn high voltage post. High-voltage tower sky background.

Germany’s Amprion has announced plans to invest €22 billion ($24 billion) in projects aligned with accelerating expansion of the country’s electricity transmission grid.

The TSO is looking at important north-south Direct Current (DC) corridors on land and the realisation of Amprion’s first four offshore grid connection systems.

The planned investment was announced alongside the utility’s financial report for 2022, wherein Amprion boasts a record €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) in grid expansion investment for last year.

The accelerated expansion of renewable energy and the transformation of the energy system are guiding the company’s investments.

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In announcing their plans and financial results, Amprion CEO Hans-Jürgen Brick commented on how the next phase of the energy transition sees the TSO shift from planning to implementation: “We are currently implementing more projects than ever before.

“In addition, the acceleration initiated by the German government is beginning to have an effect, so that we can implement important projects earlier than originally planned. We are well prepared for the tasks ahead.”

Project acceleration

In their 2022 financial report, the TSO states the importance of expanding the transmission system as fast as possible: “Germany is facing a fundamental transformation towards a climate-neutral energy system.

“We actively shape this change by expanding and converting our grid on land and at sea over a length of 5,500km. There is no time to lose.”

Specifically, Amprion, after having awarded the world’s first two-gigawatt offshore grid connection systems BalWin1 and BalWin2, intends to commission them two and three years earlier – in 2029 and 2030 respectively.

For the underground cable project from Rastede to Bürstadt (DC 34), the company intends to submit the planning approval documents by mid-2024 – an acceleration of 2 years.

To achieve these goals, Amprion states how it has pushed to accelerate its own growth. They state how the number of their employees rose again in the past financial year and was 8.5% above the previous year at 2,237 employees.

For the current year, the company plans to hire up to 400 further employees. This corresponds to a growth of around 18%.