Poland and Ukraine will open a new “energy bridge” linking the two countries’ electricity grids in the first quarter of 2023. The project consists in a 400 kV interconnection line, which will connect Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine (home to a 2 GW nuclear power plant) to Rzeszów in south-eastern Poland and will allow power exchanges between the two countries.
This new interconnection was first planned shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Voltage tests of the infrastructure are currently underway on the Polish side. Total costs for work on the Polish side have amounted to around PLN30m (€6.4m). The project was originally planned to be completed by the end of 2022, but the Ukrainian side suffered delays due to the situation in the country.
Previously, a 750 kV line did run between Khmelnytskyi and Rzeszów but closed in the mid-1990s and could not be restored at the same voltage given the current environmental and technical standards.