TenneT: Let there be light!

A successful event with a prominent guest list from the worlds of politics and business, perfect media coverage, digital and media exposure beyond the borders and a positive atmosphere among all guests set a real benchmark for future events. This was the groundbreaking ceremony for the planned and realised Altheim–St. Peter line construction project by our client TenneT. A symbolic ground-breaking ceremony marked the start of line construction in the project section between the Simbach am Inn substation and the St. Peter substation in Austria. This project not only connects Germany and Austria, but also paves the way for a sustainable future for the Bavarian energy supply.

The event’s location presented a particular challenge: it was held in the middle of a field, right next to an existing power line and parallel to the construction of the new electricity pylon, with no permanent infrastructure in place. However, with a lot of imagination and the support of the construction company’s excavators, the team managed to create a marquee and a fitting site for the ground-breaking ceremony. TenneT CEO Tim Meyerjürgens welcomed Minister President Dr Markus Söder, Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger, representatives of Bavarian municipalities and district governments, and a high-ranking Austrian political and business delegation to the ceremony.

Engel & Zimmermann planned and implemented this event together with the TenneT project team. This included developing the concept, planning all aspects of external and internal communication, selecting and coordinating all service providers, managing invitations, and of course organising the event and providing on-site support.

For us, such events are the absolute highlight of the acceptance dialogue. After all, there is nothing that demonstrates more clearly that we have done a good job beforehand than such a positive event on the construction site. Over many years, we have held intensive discussions with citizens and political stakeholders, organised dialogue events, created a project website, brochures and letters. The aim of all these actions has been to implement such an infrastructure project in a way that is as compatible as possible for all those involved. Once again, we see that an honest acceptance dialogue is crucial for the implementation of tomorrow’s infrastructure projects.