Power Line Construction Conference 2025 in Aarau

Hivoduct at the 2025 Power Line Construction Conference – A proposal for a modern Swiss high-voltage grid

This year's Leitungsbautagung 2025 conference took place in Aarau on November 12—an important industry gathering for network operators, engineers, politicians, and researchers. Hivoduct was also there, with its own booth and a presentation by CEO Walter Holaus, which attracted a great deal of interest.

A proposal for the future Swiss transmission grid 

Our contribution focused on a concrete and visionary proposal for a modern Swiss high-voltage grid:

An underground, 3-phase encapsulated compressed air cable system (DLK) laid on reels in protective pipes beneath existing linear infrastructure. This makes use of existing corridors and makes grid expansion faster, safer, and more socially acceptable.

The approach combines:

• Compressed air cable technology with a roller system
• Modern microtunneling without concrete elements
• Additional use of existing linear infrastructure—highways, tunnels, railway lines, and cantonal roads.

The advantages are obvious: Faster approval procedures, continuous expansion instead of individual projects, minimal impact on nature and the landscape, increased system security, and cost-effective network expansion that meets the increased requirements of the Energy Strategy 2050+. 

Pressurized air cables as a technical innovation – also highlighted by Swissgrid

It was particularly gratifying that Swissgrid mentioned pressurized air cable technology as a new technical innovation in its own presentation. This shows that the industry is increasingly focusing on modern and future-oriented cable systems – and that the topic is gaining relevance.

Exchange at the Hivodcut booth

Throughout the conference, many participants took the opportunity to talk to our team at the Hivoduct booth. The combination of infrastructure use, modern pipeline system, and significantly lower environmental impact sparked exciting discussions—both technical and political. We would like to thank the organizers for this excellently organized event and for the opportunity to share our ideas and solutions with experts in the field.