In November 2013, the canton of Ticino, Swissgrid, the Azienda elettrica ticinese (AET) and the Swiss Federal Railway (SBB), in agreement with the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), jointly initiated the «General Study on the Extra-High-Voltage Grid in Ticino».
The dismantling of various, now outdated lines, reduces the total length of the line network from 197 kilometres to 137 kilometres. This project minimises the impact on settlements, on national and cantonal protected areas as well as on valuable landscapes of the Alto Ticino, while simultaneously increasing the transfer capacity and improving the transportation of energy production from the Maggia Valley.
The planning territory arises from an overall assessment of the situation in Alto Ticino to determine a new corridor between Lavorgo and Airolo (SPTL 106). The purpose of this planning territory is a general restructuring of the district's lines and, importantly, to relieve the burden on the valuable landscapes.
From an electricity perspective, this advances the separation of the 380 kilovolt lines for the national and international transmission from the 220 kilovolt lines to supply and transmit the local production, which eliminates the current overload problems.
Besides increasing the transfer capacity (transportation) of the production from the Maggia Valley, which is currently inadequate, the «Solution for Restructuring» makes a significant contribution to relieving the burden on valuable landscapes, especially by dismantling the 220-kilovolt Peccia – Lavorgo, Peccia – Handegg and Robiei – Innertkirchen lines. This enables important improvements to the landscape to be implemented in the areas of Alpe Zaria (registered in the Federal Inventory of Moorlands of Exceptional Beauty and of National Importance), Campolungo (registered in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance), Cristallina, in the lower Maggia Valley and in the Bedretto Valley. The proposed solution also relieves the burden on various residential and industrial zones, especially between Cevio and Avegno, in Cardada and in the Riazzino region.
The study considered 70 different versions of the grid configuration. The evaluation took place in several stages, with the number of versions gradually reduced. The evaluation activities took place together with the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, the Swiss Federal Office of the Environment and a number of other federal offices and associations of environmental protection and regional planning and resulted in the selection of the Leventina + 14 version.
This study aims to create a general and long-term approach to the transmission grid that coordinates the objectives of renovating and modernising transmission lines with those of regional planning. The first step focussed on the area referred to as the «District of Alto Ticino – Western Part» and includes the Maggia Valley, the Locarno District up to Magadino, the Bedretto Valley and the Alta Leventina up to Lavorgo. Additional areas of the canton will then be taken into account at a later date.
