EQOS Energie starts a pioneering broadband project for Energie Steiermark
While national supplier Energie Steiermark is already operating its own broadband infrastructure along the nationwide high-voltage network, it has recently started its own fibre optics expansion phase to meet the growing requirements of future digital applications. This expansion is also a premiere: Experts from Energie Steiermark and EQOS Energie are expanding their previous infrastructure with the new high-performance fibre optics cables, which are added to existing 110-kV overhead lines in Austria for the first time ever. Energie Steiermark and EQOS Energie are currently rolling out the new technology for about 530 kilometres of overhead lines nationwide, thereby assuming a pioneering role in fibre optics expansion in all of Austria.
The so-called all-dielectric self-supporting (ADSS) telecommunications all-dielectric self-supporting cable, which were used on 110-kV overhead lines for the first time, will play an important role in future broadband expansion. Like conventional fibre optics cables, they can transmit signals up to 100 kilometres without amplification but offer a multiple capacity at significantly lower weight. As a result, they can easily be fitted to existing overhead lines and stand up to the strain of wind and ice without problem. This is enabled by a plastic construction without metal parts, which is strong enough to bear its own weight over distances of up to 700 metres.
On average, about 25 EQOS Energie experts are working on the project at the Mittersil location in Salzburg. At peak times, i.e. when only weekend work is possible due to the required disconnections of the overhead lines, up to 35 people are deployed. The work is scheduled to be completed and the infrastructure to be commissioned by the spring of 2019. “We are happy to be able to realise such an important lighthouse project for the nationwide provision of fast fibre optics internet together with Energie Steiermark and also want to use it to explore new opportunities for digitization,” said Eric Mendel, head of the Communications Technology business unit at EQOS Energie.