Authority advises against bundled gas and electricity lines in the Mühlviertel

At least the technical examination has shown that bundling lines would “cause delays”, which is why it is “not recommended”, said Energy Minister Markus Achleitner (ÖVP) on Wednesday afternoon. The decision will be made by the planning and executing companies.

• Read more: Pressure in the Mühlviertel is rising – will the gas and 110 kV lines be bundled?

In mid-May, affected landowners and communities had demanded that a high-voltage line currently planned as an overhead line be laid underground parallel to the gas pipeline between Oberkappel and Vorderweißenbach. Achleitner then announced that he would have the joint route examined. He presented the results to the relevant committee of the state parliament on Wednesday.

• From the archive: Gas pipeline through the Mühlviertel is to be expanded

40 meters distance required

For example, laying the gas and electricity lines in a trench cannot be approved. For safety reasons, the two parallel projects must be separated by around 40 meters, and this route must be kept clear at all times. The delay mainly affects the high-voltage line, and the EIA submission for the overhead line is planned for June. Laying the lines underground as a “two-system cable with isolating transformers in close proximity to the gas line” would mean going back to square one for the project, the press release said. “The energy planning body as an objective authority” therefore comes to the “clear conclusion” that bundling is not recommended, the state councilor emphasized that this opinion was made on a technical and not political basis.

NEOS parliamentary group leader Felix Eypeltauer does not see it that way. With their approach, Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) and Achleitner would once again “leave no stone unturned to enforce their will at any cost against citizens’ and environmental interests.” The technical arguments were “partly treated in a contradictory and one-sided manner,” he said after the committee meeting.

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