Forest to be Regenerated through E.ON Development

The Buda Landscape Protection Area, also known as the ‘lungs of the capital’, crossed by the mountain ranges covered with native forests, and the backbone network built by the electricity firm E.ON in the 1970s and ‘80s, which provides electricity to the surrounding settlements, is seeing improvements that will make the grid almost invisible, removing poles and wires and, with underground cables, allowing the original beauty of nature to be restored.

The network will be less exposed to the increasingly extreme weather conditions and the expansion needs of people in the area – Nagykovácsi, Máriaremete, Remeteszőlős, Solymár, Pesthidegkút, Pilisszentiván, Pilisvörösvár, Piliscsaba with more than 40,000 consumers – will be met more quickly, the company says.

In response to increasing consumer demand, E.ON has completely renewed the Solymár substation, which serves these most energy-intensive settlements in the region, and has also started to dismantle part of the medium-voltage network in the surrounding settlements and protected forests and replace it with underground cables.

In the context of the project, E.ON is removing and replacing more than 450 poles and 50 kilometers of overhead lines with underground cables in the Natura 2000 areas of the Buda Landscape Protection Area and in residential areas of the region. The installation of the underground cable network, which will provide a safer and more secure operation, will significantly reduce the exposure of the area's electricity supply to the forces of nature. The upgraded sections will eliminate storm damage and power outages caused by falling trees, and will eliminate the need for felling in residential areas and continuous opening management in protected forests.