Lienz substation

The 380/220/110/30/10-kV substation in Lienz (Lienz substation), which is owned by APG, serves as a trans-regional network node in APG’s 380/220-kV transmission grid and additionally supports the 110-kV transmisison grids of both TINETZ Stromnetz Tirol AG and Kärnten Netz GmbH.

With its line connections to Salzburg and Carinthia as well as to Italy, the Lienz substation plays an important role in Austria's secure electricity supply. The 220-kV lines to Malta Main Stage connect the pumped storage power plants in western Carinthia to APG's transmission grid in Lienz. 

The 220-kV switching station at the Lienz substation was inspected in 2014 as part of a routine assessment of plant condition in connection with maintenance planning at APG. The inspection revealed that the existing 220-kV switching station was in a condition that made rehabilitation absolutely necessary. The inspection findings were used to develop a comprehensive rehabilitation concept, which proposed a step-by-step construction process to replace the existing 220-kV switching station at the Lienz substation. In order to maintain grid operational safety, eight stages of construction and extensive provisional measures were designated to refurbish the 220-kV system at the Lienz substation for the period from 2016 to 2022.

To improve transport capacity between the 380-kV and 220-kV grids and to improve transformer availability, it proved necessary to build a third 380/220-kV RHU43 transformer (550 MVA). Given the increasing load flows in APG’s southern grid area as a result of construction work (e.g. the Reißeck?II power plant), it will moreover be necessary to add a third 380/220-kV transformer to achieve a more efficient connection of the 220-kV level to the 380-kV grid and to improve n-1 security throughout Austria. This measure will significantly increase the east-west transmission capacity in the APG grid, which plays a major role in the Austria-wide distribution of renewable energy and thus in the energy transition.