E.ON Grid Developments in Szombathely

The electricity company E.ON has commissioned a new transformer substation and significant related grid upgrades in Szombathely, W Hungary as part of the Danube InGrid program. The HUF 7.5 billion investment strengthens the electricity supply to the city and its surrounding region with new grid capacity, helps meet growing residential and industrial energy demands, and creates additional opportunities for connecting renewable energy producers.

The E.ON Hungária Group, which operates the power grids of Transdanubia, Pest County, and Budapest, is developing the electricity grid in northern Transdanubia using smart grid technologies as part of the cross-border Danube InGrid project. Launched in 2020, the program aims to modernize the grid, increase its flexibility and controllability, and support the grid integration of new customer demands and growing renewable energy generation. The Szombathely substation is the final element in this series of grid upgrades.

The construction of the facility was necessitated by the significantly increased electricity demand of the city and the industrial areas operating in its vicinity: the existing grid infrastructure would no longer have been able to adequately meet these additional demands in the future. At the same time, the amount of locally generated renewable energy is also growing rapidly. In Vas County, nearly 2,300 small-scale power plants serving households were in operation in 2020; by 2025, their number had exceeded 9,500—meaning it more than quadrupled in five years.

The CEO of E.ON Észak-dunántúli Áramhálózati Zrt. (North Transdanubian Power Grid Co., Ltd.), Gergely Pethő emphasized that “the role of the electric power grid is undergoing a fundamental transformation: while we must reliably meet growing residential and industrial energy demands, the rise of renewable energy sources and the rapid expansion of weather-dependent energy generation are also placing new demands on the electric power grid. With Danube InGrid’s developments, we are building a more modern, flexibly manageable grid that is prepared for the demands of the future. “With the Szombathely North substation, we are simultaneously strengthening the region’s security of supply, creating capacity for economic development, and enabling additional renewable energy producers to connect.”