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The 220-kilovolt line between Niederwil (AG) and Obfelden (ZH) needs to be replaced by a new 380-kV line. Today, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) presents the planning corridor, which will comprise an overhead and an underground cable section.
The replacement of the current 220-kV line between the two substations in Niederwil and Obfelden with a new 380-kV line will secure the energy supply in the Aargau West region and in the conurbations of Zurich and Zug. The project is part of the Strategic Grid 2025.
The line route proposed by the SFOE for the planning corridor will relieve the burden on the «Reusslandschaft» protected area as well as the residential areas. Specifically, the plans foresee an underground cable running from the residential area east of Besenbüren to the south of Jonen. This will therefore cross below the «Reusslandschaft» protected area. An overhead line section is planned between the Niederwil and Besenbüren substations as well as between Jonen and the Obfelden substation. Two transitional structures will also be required to connect the underground cable to the overhead line sections. The existing line will be dismantled following the commissioning of the new line.
The Swiss Federal Council determined the planning area for this line as part of the Transmission Lines Sectoral Planning process (SÜL) in 2016. Swissgrid subsequently developed various planning corridors within this area and submitted them to the monitoring group appointed by the SFOE for assessment. Its members evaluated various corridors based on an assessment scheme and submitted a recommendation to the SFOE. To enable specific planning, the SFOE is now proposing a corridor and the transmission technology (overhead lines and underground cables). This is based on the recommendation made by the monitoring group.
The SFOE will today present the specific planning corridor to official representatives and the public at an information event in Bremgarten. The proposal will then pass on to a public collaboration process in which municipalities, associations and private individuals can express their opinions. The collaboration process will last from 2 December 2019 until 29 February 2020.