Good day,
Attached is a press release from the city of St. Ingbert with a request for publication.
Groundbreaking for the renovation of the Bahnhof substation - Stadtwerke invest over four million euros in the future of energy supply
With the symbolic groundbreaking on June 30, 2026, the municipal utilities have given the starting signal for the comprehensive reconstruction of the Bahnhof substation. The project is an important milestone for the long-term security of electricity supply and creates the conditions to meet the increasing demands of the energy transition.
After about three years of intensive planning, construction work is now beginning. From the outset, the project presents high technical demands: more than 30 medium-voltage cables must be gradually relocated. For reasons of supply security, only one cable can be taken out of operation at a time. This ensures that the electricity supply to residents and businesses is guaranteed at all times throughout the entire construction period.
The existing building has a long history. The foundation walls date back to 1920, when the building was originally constructed as the station's restroom facility. Since 1955, it has served as a switch house for the municipal utilities and was last comprehensively modernized in 1989. Today, however, the facility is reaching its technical and spatial limits.
The demands on the power grid are continuously increasing. Heat pumps, electromobility, as well as the rising electricity demand of modern buildings – including the new CISPA campus – lead to a significantly higher power requirement. To ensure a safe and efficient power supply in the future, the municipal utilities are therefore investing in a modern switching station with a significantly larger capacity.
Since there is no suitable plot of land available nearby for new construction, the modernization takes place at the existing site. The conversion is carried out entirely during ongoing network operation – a special technical challenge that ensures continuous power supply to the city.
The construction project will be carried out in three phases. First, a new building section will be built on Bahnhofstraße. After its completion, part of the new medium-voltage switchgear will be put into operation. Subsequently, the existing building can be dismantled before the second building section is constructed in the third phase and the new switchgear is fully installed. Finally, the building equipment, modern remote control technology, fire alarm systems, and an automatic carbon dioxide extinguishing system will be installed.
With its completion, a switching station is created according to the most modern technical standards. It will in future have 32 medium-voltage switchgear fields at the 20 kV level and achieve an available network capacity of more than 50 megawatts. This lays the foundation for the municipal utilities to reliably and sustainably expand the power supply in the coming decades.
The total investment amounts to more than four million euros. The construction period is expected to be a little over two years.
With this investment, the municipal utilities send a clear signal for a safe, efficient, and sustainable energy supply. Expanding the network infrastructure is an essential prerequisite for successfully implementing the energy transition locally and reliably supplying the region with electrical energy in the future as well.
Photo credit: Giusi Faragone
Photo groundbreaking: Maria Müller-Lang
BU: The symbolic groundbreaking on Neue Bahnhofstraße was carried out by Thomas Diederichs, Head of the Traffic Department, Reiner Grund, Head of the Power Supply Department at the Biosphere City Utilities, Jürgen Bach, Managing Director of the Biosphere City Utilities, and Sven Schroll, S.I.G SCHROLL INGENIEURGESELLSCHAFT mbH.
