EVN, APG to invest in Lower Austria's grid expansion

Jul 11, 2013 - Austrian regional utility EVN (WBAG:EVN) and Austrian Power Grid (APG), a unit of utility Verbund (WBAG:VER), plan massive investments in the expansion of the electricity grid in Lower Austria in the next years.

Investments in this field are the only way for integrating decentralized wind and solar energy power, EVN said at a press conference on Wednesday.

EVN Netz' CEO Johannes Reindl thus announced plans for investments of EUR 250 million (USD 328.1m) in the 300 kilometre (186 miles) high-voltage power lines.

APG's executive Gerhard Christiner, in his turn, announced investments of EUR 220 million in the integration of wind energy in eastern Austria by 2017.

As part of the utilities' plans, a total of 30 voltage transformation stations will be modernised.

It is expected that a total of around 4 GW of wind power capacity will be installed in eastern Austria by 2020.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.312)

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