Facts
The simple company Obere Rhonetalleitung is planning the construction of a 380/220/132/65 kilovolt (kV) high-voltage line between Bitsch/Massaboden-Filet/Mörel-Ulrichen. The project includes a approximately 35 km long 380/220 kV double line and is intended to replace the existing 220 kV transmission network in the Upper Valais. The line is part of the important west-east connection from Mörel/Filet to Airolo and belongs to the strategic transmission network of Switzerland.
The Federal Office of Energy (BFE) approved the planning documents with conditions and rejected the objections. Various municipal and citizen communities of the Obergoms as well as individuals appealed against the planning approval decision to the Federal Administrative Court.
The Federal Administrative Court overturned the contested planning approval and referred the matter back to the BFE for further action. It held that the request for evidence by the plaintiff communities was to be granted and a cabling study was to be commissioned.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the appeal by the simple company Obere Rhonetalleitung and overturned the contested decision, insofar as the referral also concerned the examination of cabling in the lower Goms. The court found that the appellant wrongly claimed that the lower court had wrongly accepted the request for evidence by the communities to commission a cabling study for the entire project.
The court stated that the communities can only demand the examination of a project and the development of variants to the extent that this leads to an improvement of the project or a reduction of its impact from the perspective of nature and landscape on their territory. The communities must therefore raise fundamental objections to the line route already in the sectoral planning procedure.
The court also examined the binding effect of the sectoral plan and found that the binding effect of the sectoral plan…