News
2015-01-14
Meeting with 50 Hertz in Berlin
We had the chance to meet 50 Hertz, part of the Elia group, one of the German Transmission System Operator (TSO) in Berlin on January 14th. This meeting has been set up in the framework of our networking campaign launched in March 2014.
Presentation of 50 Hertz actions and LIFE Elia project
50 Hertz is a company employing 800 people and managing around 10.000 km of high-tension line (220 and 380 kV) almost entirely overhead.
The vegetation management policy within 50 Hertz is currently evolving from a clear-cut method in forest corridor to a biodiversity friendly method using forest edges principle. A study named EcoMOL has been carried out and published in 2010 whose subject was the ecological management of overhead lines. The outputs of this study are being applied since 2011 on two pilot sites 300 km south of Berlin. Those first pilot sites projects are developed on 1.200 m and 300 m.
Partnership and common concerns
We presented the LIFE Elia project and see how we could build a new partnership linked to our main concern : vegetation management of overhead lines in forest corridors.
Different points on common thoughts were stressed out during discussions : mitigation and vegetation management, relations with administrations and local communities, tools to apply biodiversity-friendly method to the entire grid and importance of the integration of such method at early steps of a permit.