APG, Bewag to help wind power integration in Austria with EUR 320m investment

(SeeNews) – Aug 24, 2012 - Austrian Power Grid (APG), part of utility firm Verbund (WBAG:VER), and Austrian power utility Bewag plan to invest EUR 320 million (USD 400m) in the country's grid expansion by 2015, the companies announced yesterday.

The aim of the investment is to enable the connection of future Austrian wind farms to the grid, like in the province Burgenland, where wind farms with a total capacity of 1,000 MW are planned in the coming years.

APG’s part in the investment will amount EUR 240 million, consisting of EUR 170 million for the extension of transformer stations for wind energy in eastern Austria by 2020 and an additional EUR 70 million for the improvement of important APG power lines.

Bewag, on its part has already invested EUR 300 million in the development of wind energy in Austria through its subsidiary Austrian Windpower, the country’s largest wind energy producer. Now the company intends to spend another EUR 450 million in order to double its capacity, CEO Michael Gerbavsits said. Bewag's network raises EUR 31 million annually for the renewal and maintenance of Burgenland's power grid. In addition, the company plans to put almost EUR 84 million into the network infrastructure by 2015 by expanding six existing substations and building further two in Andau and Zurndorf.

By 2015, the state Burgenland aims to produce 100% of the electricity consumed in the state from renewable sources within its own borders. The expansion of wind power would be the most important step in achieving that, thus the state will need to install wind power stations with a joint capacity of 1 GW.

(EUR 1.00 = USD 1.250)

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