The project to build the 400 kV Cernavodă-Stâlpu Overhead Power Line has passed the most difficult technical stage, namely the 2.6 km crossing of the Danube, of which 1.13 km is over water. Transelectrica announced that the Danube river crossing stage was completed in about three weeks, making it the first such large-scale electrical engineering work carried out on the Romanian Electric Transmission Grid in the last 35 years. The double-circuit overhead power line is supported on both banks of the Danube by the highest high-voltage pylons – 150 meters – in the entire national energy infrastructure.

The only such work crossing the Danube was built in 1987, the 400 kV Cernavodă – Gura Ialomiței line.

The 400 kV Cernavodă-Stâlpu Overhead Power Line infrastructure objective is an investment totaling around €75 million, with €27 million in non-reimbursable co-financing from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The project is part of the North-South Interconnection East Electricity Corridor and aims to strengthen the cross-section between the western Black Sea coast and the rest of the European system, while contributing to the reinforcement of the electricity transmission grid in Romania, increasing the interconnection capacity between Romania and Bulgaria and integrating wind energy produced in the Dobrogea area.

“We understand the urgency of expanding the electricity transmission network to ensure national and regional energy security and that is why we have planned investments of around €2 billion for the next decade,” said Gabriel Andronache, CEO of Transelectrica. “It is an ambitious plan, but absolutely necessary for Romania”.

The crossing of the Danube was carried out by the teams of Electromontaj SA.