E-Distribuție companies, the electricity distribution operators within the  Enel Group, invested in 2022 approximately 106 million lei from their own funds in high voltage projects in Bucharest, Ilfov and Dobrogea and Banat regions. The key projects consisted in the construction of new lines and in the modernization of underground and overhead power lines, along with modernization works in primary substations. They have a direct impact on the network’s ability to distribute power to new consumers and increase digitalization to improve the management of unplanned outages to securely supply energy to customers.

E-Distribuție Muntenia has made investments of 60 million lei for modernization works of some high voltage lines and primary substations in Bucharest, and 18 million lei were invested by E-Distribuție Dobrogea, especially for the modernization and amplification of some primary substations in Ialomita and Constanta counties. E-Distribuție Banat has made investments of 28.3 million lei, of which 9.8 million lei for the modernization of a high voltage overhead power line in Hunedoara County.

“Despite an extremely difficult year, we continued to make investments in infrastructure and focused on several key projects to ensure the continuity of distribution services. Therefore, we focused on the high-voltage infrastructure, with impact and benefits for the other distribution segments as well,” says Monica Hodor, general manager of E-Distribuție companies.

In Bucharest, E-Distributie Muntenia invested over 33 million lei in total for the realization of a new underground power line on the Mașini Grele – IMGB route and the increase of the capacity of the line in the Fundeni – Pipera 2 area, but also for the amplification of the Mașini Grele primary substation.  In the Fundeni – Pipera 2 line, the high voltage underground cables, put into operation in the late ’70s, were replaced with dry insulation cables with low impact on the environment. The new route of the line led to an increase in its length to 7.86 km, and the transport capacity of the line increased to over 160 MVA compared to the old one, which had a capacity of 120 MVA. The implementation of this project, worth 21.5 million lei, benefits the inhabitants of the northern area of the Capital. The new underground line put into operation in 2022 that connects the 1.83 km long Mașini Grele and IMGB primary substations increases flexibility in operation, ensuring the energy conditions for carrying out network relocation works in order to build the A0 highway in the southern area and at the same time increases  the level of safety in  the electricity supply for the inhabitants of Sector 4 and for a part of their inhabitants in Popești Leordeni. Another project consisted in equipping Mașini Grele primary substation with two transformers with a total installed capacity of 80 MVA (40 MVA each) based on a new technology that has low energy losses and low environmental impact, in line with current European standards. The new trnasformers ensure the electricity supply to approximately 28,000 household and industrial customers, including  the future Tudor Arghezi subway station.

In Dobrogea, the main works in 2022 targeting the high voltage infrastructure consisted in the modernization of three primary substations in Ialomita and Constanta counties. The total value of these three works carried out by E-Distribuție was 16.2 million lei. The Slobozia Sud primary substation now has two transformers with a total capacity of 50 MVA (25 MVA each) installed, as well as modern medium voltage cells, equipped with state-of-the-art protections, which communicate through fiber optics. This technology, used for the first time at an E-Distribuție primary substation, streamlines intervention times thanks to an intelligent system that identifies grid defects faster and helps with a fast, remote switching.  In order to increase the capacity of the distribution network in order to ensure access to the grid for domestic and industrial users in the Năvodari and Medgidia area, respectively, in the primary substations in these localities, which currently supply approximately 23,700 users, respectively about 8,000 users, amplification works were carried out.

In Banat, an important project regarding the high voltage network of E-Distribuție was the modernization of the Baru Mare – Hațeg overhead power line, with a length of 31.3 km. The project, with a value of approximately 9.8 million lei and which targeted areas difficult to reach geographically, consisted of modernization works of the network elements:  about 120 metal poles, as well as the replacement of their insulators and electrical conductors.

The electrical grids operated by the three E-Distribuție companies count 286 primary substations and over 24,000 substations.  In 2022, they distributed 15.5 TWh of electricity through high, medium and low voltage power lines.