Making Europe's electricity grid fit for 2030
An integrated EU energy system where energy flows freely across borders, based on
competition and the best possible use of resources is the enabler of the Energy Union.
Ultimately, it provides EU consumers with secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable
energy.
Towards a fully interconnected electricity grid
The European Council noted the fundamental importance of a fully functioning and
interconnected internal energy market. In this respect, the interconnection of the electricity
markets is a political priority for the European Union at all levels. The European Council
asked the European Commission to take measures in order to ensure the achievement of a
minimum target of 10% of existing electricity interconnections, as a matter of urgency, and no
later than 2020.
As underlined by the European Council, the 10% interconnection target should mainly be
reached through implementation of the Projects of Common Interest. The completion of an
EU-wide energy infrastructure system is progressing as a result of removing bottlenecks and
further integrating "energy islands". The inauguration of the electricity cable between Italy
and Malta in April 2015 ended the energy isolation of the Maltese electricity grid. The
completion of Eastlink between Finland and Estonia, and Nordbalt between Lithuania and
Sweden enabled the Baltic States to participate in the NordPool electricity market this year.
The completion of the interconnection between Lithuania and Poland known as LitPol Link
will double the level of interconnection of Poland by end of 2015. 2015 also saw the
inauguration of the France-Spain electricity interconnector, doubling the transmission
capacity between the two countries.
However, there is still much to be done. Many Member States are still not sufficiently
connected to their neighbours. Some parts of Europe face internal bottlenecks because of
insufficient internal transmission grids which mean that electricity cannot flow freely to
where it is of most value.
There is a need for more regional and holistic approaches that take into account both crossborder interconnection and expansion of internal grid transmission to ensure that power can
flow freely across Europe.
The European Commission plays an active role in addressing obstacles encountered by
projects encounter, ranging from overseeing the compliance on permit granting procedures, to
facilitating access to finance.
Reaching the 15% objective by 2030
The European Council called on the Commission to report regularly on the achievement of
the 10% electricity target with the objective of arriving at a 15% target by 2030. The
Commission intends to set up an expert Group to translate the 15% interconnectivity target
into regional, country and/or border-level targets and to identify accompanying measures.
This Group will be led by the Commission and include relevant experts from the ENTSO for
electricity, ACER, industry, academia and NGOs. The Group will work closely with the TENE Regional Groups in electricity and the corresponding High Level Groups. It will provide a
regional focus to the implementation of the target, taking into account cost factors and
potential trade flows.
Integration of renewables
The coming decades will see a highly significant increase of renewable energy in the EUs
energy mix. Whereas efforts until now have mostly focused on the integration of renewables
in the existing system, the next challenge is to adapt the system itself. Europe's electricity grid
will need to undergo a transformation in the coming period to be able to cope with the
challenges of an integrated, low carbon energy market. This will require a redesign of the
European electricity market as well as major investments.
It is expected that after 2020 much of the growth will be in decentralised renewables, posing
challenges to the distribution networks and requiring investments in demand side management
and new electricity storage technologies at transmission and distribution level.
Overcoming financing and public acceptance challenges
The investments needed are very significant and one of the key challenges will be finance.
The large majority of the PCIs should be financed through tariffs. The Commission has
limited financial support available, which can be used to support projects which are
nevertheless of strategic importance for reasons of security of supply, technological
innovation or solidarity.
Besides the financial instruments offered by the European Investment Bank (EIB), including
the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) for the most mature projects, commercial
banks, investment funds and institutional investors will need to step in. At the same time, the
regulatory framework must be carefully designed to enable the transmission system operators
(TSOs) to make the necessary investments. The TEN-E regulation foresees the establishment
of regulatory incentives to projects with a higher risk profile.
Another challenge to the realisation of the necessary infrastructure projects are long delays in
permitting processes many projects face. Increasing societal acceptance of energy
infrastructure is key. In many cases citizens are confronted with the negative consequences of
infrastructure development in their direct environment, without seeing the benefits of the
investments being made. Transparency and communication are essential, but citizens and
interest groups must also feel that they gain something by the project, locally or through a
positive impact of the market integration on energy bills.
Discussion points

How to accelerate the expansion of the European electricity grid needed to let the power
flow freely in the EU?

How do you see the EU’s electricity system development by 2030? How do we adapt the
electricity transmission and distribution grids to to accommodate and support this?