Grid expansion projects in Schleswig-Holstein Challenges for planning and communication to accelerate the expansion of the power grid

Grid expansion in the transition to the energy transition (2006 - 2010 )

The Infrastructure Planning and Acceleration Act makes the planning approval procedure for the new construction of all high-voltage and extra-high-voltage lines mandatory. This may result in delays for projects already underway as part of other procedures. The requirements for procedural documents are growing. Jurisprudence and changes in the law on species protection are significantly increasing the requirements for recording and assessing nature and the landscape and, in particular, wildlife. Recording periods can lead to delays in the compilation of documents.
Public opposition to individual pipeline projects is increasing considerably. This also leads to legal action by citizens affected by the expansion in the case of projects in Schleswig-Holstein. Communication with those affected is largely limited to formal exchanges with comments and discussions. In the planning approval procedures, the need for the expansion is disputed for years and various individual expert opinions are required to determine the need. Ultimately, the resulting delays in individual projects mean that the need that has been questioned over the years as being too great proves to be undersized in the meantime and the projects have to be discontinued due to the lack of capacity and replaced by projects of a higher voltage level.
The tasks for landscape architects have continued to grow. In addition to the evaluation of the mandatory tasks of nature conservation law, more and more consulting activities are required in order to develop solutions together with the technicians, routing planners and construction companies, which enable the construction and operation of power lines under the strict requirements of species and nature conservation law.

Grid expansion in the last century (- 1976 )

In the time before the modernised Federal Nature Conservation Act with the introduction of the impact regulation, grid expansion planning was a very manageable business for a few specialist engineers. The network engineer determines the demand and draws as straight a line as possible between the starting point and the end point and thus designs a project that is optimised from an economic and network-technical point of view. In addition to a few sentences justifying the need, the permit document includes the project's starting and ending points (usually substations) and a principle drawing of a typical pole.

Protection of species and biotopes, impact regulation and landscape planning, recreational value of the landscape, landscape, electric and magnetic fields of the line are not yet issues and the public usually learns about the project when the excavators start rolling.

Citizen protests were not yet known - blissful time of economic development and industrial construction
Landscape architects were not yet involved in the process and the environmental planning as a field of work not yet discovered - various damages to the ntürlichen and populated environment were triggered, which occupy us in planning until today

Grid expansion in times of landscape planning and impact regulation (1976-1990 )

With the introduction of the impact regulation and regulations on biotope protection, the time of landscape and environmental planners in the field of grid expansion is beginning. The need for expansion is only slight and is largely measured by the increase in consumption in the main settlement areas and industrial conurbations. In some cases, connection lines of limited length are required in the vicinity of new power plant sites. The small number of projects makes network expansion a niche business for landscape architects.
Specialist legislation does not yet define a requirement for a concentrative approval procedure for grid expansion. Thus, only individual permits continue to be obtained and a public participation procedure does not take place. The landscape architect takes care of the handling of the impact regulation with manageable effort, develops the first holistic compensation concepts (today we would call this multifunctional compensation) and ensures the minimum requirements of biotope protection. The first approaches to avoidance and protection of the landscape are developed. Without dedicated planners, however, these are difficult to implement, because without concentration procedures and overall consideration, environmental planning is often on "lost ground" next to technical planning.

Protection of species and European site protection have not yet found their way into planning. Legal certainty is not yet an authoritative concept and lawsuits against grid expansion projects do not play a significant role. The public continues to take little notice of the projects.

Grid expansion today and tomorrow (2011 - 2013 )

The energy transition has reached Germany. With the reactor accident in Fukushima and the subsequent decision to phase out nuclear power, politicians are once again changing the framework conditions for the future energy supply. The re-entry into the nuclear phase-out with firmly agreed shutdown times for the remaining reactors is changing the requirements for the transmission and distribution grids at an unprecedented speed. The legal framework for the very ambitious timetable for the conversion is being created with the Grid Expansion Acceleration Act (NABEG). New working tools such as the grid development plan and the federal requirements plan are being used to streamline the discussion of requirements. The issue of underground cabling at the extra-high voltage level is defined as an exceptional solution on pilot routes.
At the same time, protests continue on some planned new lines. There is a lack of clear communication that not every local situation in the vicinity of a new line can be sufficient justification for underground cabling. At the same time, the fact that the grid development plan and the federal requirement plan are being updated at very short notice is overburdening parts of the public. For example, it is not made sufficiently clear that a route not included in the Federal Requirements Plan does not have to be permanently dispensable, but can be included in the grid development plan during the update in the following year. The accusation of project development as a "salami tactic" is in the air.
The grid operators are significantly expanding their resources for grid expansion and are launching a larger number of expansion and new construction projects. The experience gained from a decade of planning approval in power line construction is beginning to bear fruit. In cooperation with the approval authorities, we succeed in establishing standards and streamlining planning and approval times. The first sub-projects are approved and built without legal action.
For landscape architects, a market segment is growing with great dynamism. In addition to the classic review and planning tasks (SEA, EIA, LBP, FFH-VP, species protection), fields of work such as project communication and ecological construction monitoring are coming to the fore, without which accelerated planning and a construction process without delays cannot be realized.
It is foreseeable that this field of work will continue to generate a significant demand for landscape planning services for at least a decade.

EIA enters the grid expansion planning process (1990-2005 )

Since 1990, the EIA Directive has been transposed into national law in Germany by the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (UVPG). The UVPG defines certain projects for which an environmental impact assessment must be carried out in every case or after a prior individual case assessment. This environmental impact assessment is always a dependent component of an administrative procedure and must include a formalised public participation procedure. As a result, the planning of major pipeline projects is moving out of the technical planning stage, which is largely unnoticed by the public, and into the focus of general attention. The presentation of the environmental impacts leads to a critical examination of the projects. At the same time, increased environmental awareness and doubts about health protection limits led to resistance to construction projects.
In addition to the resistance from the public, uncertainties in the choice of approval procedure added to the difficulties and delays. On the one hand, a decision had to be made for a large number of projects (all extra-high voltage lines under 15 km in length and all high-voltage lines) as part of a preliminary assessment as to whether an EIA was required. This decision may have led to the important question of choosing the right approval procedure. For each of the projects subject to EIA, a licensing procedure had to be found that would allow sufficient public participation for the EIA. The amendment of the Energy Industry Act in 2005 clarified this issue, as the new Section 43 defined the planning approval obligation for all overhead line projects subject to EIA.
The very lean and fast approval procedures of previous years could no longer be implemented and the first delays in project realisation occurred.
For the professional field of landscape architects, the EIA added a very extensive field of work and, especially in the context of route identification and evaluation, the task moved from the purely aftercare elimination of environmental damage to the preventive protection of the environment. The cooperation between environmental planning and routing became necessarily closer and it required on the part of the environmental planners extended knowledge of the project requirements.
The number of projects was still quite small. In many cases, however, the projects now resulted from the addition of decentralized, renewable energies whose produced power could not be delivered to consumers without the necessary grid connections and strengthened regional distribution networks.

to the stories back to overview

1. Grid expansion in the transition to the energy transition (2006 - 2010)
2. Grid expansion in the last century (- 1976)
3. Grid expansion in times of landscape planning and impact regulation (1976-1990)
4. Grid expansion today and tomorrow (2011 - 2013)
5. EIA enters the grid expansion planning process (1990-2005)