Primeo Energie Builds a Climate-Friendly Substation Exclusively for uptownBasel
On 22 September 2022, the foundation stone was laid for the new substation on the uptownBasel site. From the end of the following year, it will supply the innovation campus in Arlesheim with electricity. This is the first time Primeo Energie has built a substation for a single customer — and once again, the Münchenstein-based energy provider is relying on climate-friendly technology.
Exclusive and climate-friendly
A climate-friendly substation built for a single customer: these are two of the standout features of the future substation on the uptownBasel site. As with the new substation in Therwil, the switchgear at uptownBasel operates entirely without climate-damaging or fluorinated insulating gases. Instead, a nitrogen-oxygen mixture is used on the high-voltage side, while pure ambient air provides insulation at the medium-voltage level. The clean switchgear is supplied by Siemens Energy (high voltage) and ABB (medium voltage).
As a result, the switchgear's insulating gases have a global warming potential (GWP) of 0. For comparison: CO2 has a GWP of 1, while SF6 — the insulating gas widely used in conventional switchgear — has a GWP of 22,600. With this project, Primeo Energie continues its strategy of building climate-friendly substations.
High voltage for uptownBasel
The uptownBasel substation will have a capacity of 40 megavolt-amperes and will be integrated into Primeo Energie's 145-kilovolt high-voltage grid (network level 3). This makes uptownBasel one of the few customers in Primeo Energie's supply area to draw power directly at network level 3 and then distribute it independently across the site. The substation will supply the various transformer stations in uptownBasel's buildings — one of which will be housed in the new, sustainable heating centre for the Wärmeverbund Birsstadt, also being built by Primeo Energie on the site.
Because the new substation is designed exclusively for uptownBasel and will not be connected to the public grid, the site can be supplied with 20 kilovolts (kV) from the very start — making a later conversion from 13 to 20 kV, which will take place on the public medium-voltage grid in the coming years, unnecessary.
With the opening of Building 1 and its use by the two European technology groups Bouygues and VINCI (Axians and Actemium), the first 400 new jobs have been created at uptownBasel since 2021.
