The 80 kilometers long power line between Cirkovce near Ptuj and Pince on the border with Hungary will establish a link between the Hungarian and Slovenian national grids and consequently Croatia. The 150 million euros project has been in the making for almost two decades, mainly due to lengthy zoning procedures.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban and Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gordan Grlic Radman attended a ceremony in north eastern Slovenia, marking the start of the construction of a power line that will link the three countries.
PM Jansa noted that it took ten times as long to prepare the project as it would to build it. He said that Slovenia has terrible difficulties when it comes to the speed of development projects and zoning procedures, not so much with construction as with red tape, adding that the project should serve as a further encouragement that procedures should never again take that long. He said the power line was of exceptional importance not only for Slovenia but for a broader region.
Slovenian electricity transmission system operator ELES expects for the 2×400 kV power line to be linked internationally by the end of 2021 with the project to be fully completed with final details by the end of 2022.
In January 2019, EU member states have approved a grant in the amount of 48.2 million euros under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to Slovenian electricity transmission system operator ELES for the construction of the first electricity interconnection between Slovenia and Hungary. The project implemented by ELES envisages the construction of the 80 kilometers long double-circuit 400kV overhead line Cirkovce-Pince and the new 400 kV Cirkovce substation, both in Slovenia. The new double 400 kV overhead line will be connected to one circuit of the existing double-circuit 400kV overhead line connecting Hungary and Croatia Heviz-Zerjavinec.
