Brussels, 02/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is considering carrying out stress tests on the electricity system of the EU in 2006, like those carried out last year for the gas network, the Commissioner for the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic, announced on Wednesday 1 April.
The day before, a major electricity blackout hit Turkey, and in the EU the question was raised last week when the region of Amsterdam was without power for five hours.
“We would like to repeat the positive experience we had with the stress test for our gas supplies”, Sefcovic told the press, on the sidelines of a conference on electricity networks, adding that the Commission was looking into various ways of implementing these tests.
The stress tests could look at a number of different scenarios. Those carried out on the European gas system looked at how an interruption to supply could be dealt with for one month, two months or a year, and the types of emergency plans in place.
“When it comes to power, the problem is not generation but how well we are connected, how we can transport energy around Europe, where the bottlenecks are”, Sefcovic explained.
In addition to the stress tests, the strategy tabled by the Commission on 25 February for the planned Energy Union (see EUROPE 11262) includes legislation for the electricity sector on a new market concept, and measures for smart networks in order to include electricity from renewable sources, which is intermittent. (Emmanuel Hagry)