LEINGARTEN (dpa-AFX) - Construction of the planned Suedlink north-south power line is making progress: German Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), together with transmission grid operator TransnetBW, gave the go-ahead on Thursday in Leingarten, Baden-Württemberg, for the construction of the first of four converters for the line, which is scheduled to go into operation in 2026.

Converters convert direct current into alternating current and vice versa. Alternating current comes from household sockets, where the voltage can be changed quite easily with transformers. For the long route from the north to the south of Germany, however, direct current is used because less energy is lost in the process.

Suedlink was actually supposed to be completed in 2022. Now the target is 2028. So far, just 17 kilometers of the planned 700-kilometer route from Schleswig-Holstein to Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria have been approved. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, construction on the first sections of the line is scheduled to begin this year, with the remaining sections to be completed by the end of 2025.

"This is a great, a significant day for the energy transition," Habeck said in Leingarten. "Actually, the whole thing should be ready in 2022." Six years too late, the route is now finally being built, he said, which is unacceptable. In the future, the planning time should be halved, he said, which is also possible based on experience.

According to the ministry, thousands of kilometers of additional power grids are needed in the next two decades. The federal government has already launched many acceleration measures and legal simplifications, and more are planned, he said.

"Grid expansion is one of the key factors for the success of the energy transition," stressed Andreas Schell, CEO of energy supplier EnBW. Suedlink is one of the most important individual projects, he said. Without the timely expansion of the transmission grids, the phase-out of coal will not work out as planned. Grid expansion must be accelerated significantly, he said, adding that the lead time for Suedlink was far too long. Grid expansion is considered necessary because renewable energies from wind and sun are subject to regional fluctuations, in contrast to nuclear and coal-fired power.

According to the ministry, some 14,000 kilometers of new power lines are being built throughout Germany in 119 projects. Around 2,000 kilometers of these are already fully operational. Around 3,400 kilometers are not yet in the approval process, 1,500 kilometers are in the regional planning or federal sector planning process, 5,400 kilometers are in the planning approval process, and around 1,500 kilometers are under construction./hrz/DP/ngu