The construction of the cross-border transmission line between Slovenia and Hungary DV 2×400 kV Cirkovce-Pince is in full swing. Transmission System operators from Slovenia (ELES) and Hungary (MAVIR) are announcing the conclusion of the construction of the transmission line and the start of allocating cross-border transfer capacities on the border between Slovenia and Hungary presumably in March 2022. ELES has all the contracts for the works and the procurement of high voltage equipment either concluded or pending. Construction is in the works along the entire route where partial building permits have already been obtained. The works are currently in the phase where on certain standing areas steel construction montages are already being built.
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic there was a delay with the start of the construction, which was planned for 1 March 2020, consequently the field work began with a six month delay. Because of the conditions that are mandated by the measures for containing the epidemic all works are proceeding in line with those measures. As a result of unforeseen complications on the project ELES prepared amendments to the schedule for the construction of the transmission line. In accordance with the amended schedule, which anticipates the procurement of the final building permit in July 2021 at the latest, the transmission line will presumably be built and ready for a test run in March 2022. This means that March 2022 also anticipates the inclusion of the SI-HU border in the European projects for forming an integrated electric market and with this also the commercial granting of cross-border transmission capacities. The project is expected to formally conclude at the end of 2022, when all the final construction works will be concluded as will all the landscape architecture, which is mandated in accordance with the Slovenian Spatial Plan.
MAVIR CEO Andras Biczok said that the missing interconnection with Slovenia, the only neighbor without direct access so far, should finally be completed. Hungarian section of the interconnector was completed years earlier and the establishment of the missing 80-kilometres-long 400 kV Cirkovce-Pince interconnection will be a significant step for both countries’ TSOs to secure energy supply.
