Brussels, 21/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - A study by consultants Tractable Engineering unveiled by the Commission on Tuesday 21 June has highlighted the considerable socio-economic benefits to be derived from the additional electricity interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and France.
The study notes, for example, that the costs of the Franco-Spanish interconnector project in the Bay of Biscay (known as Biscay Gulf interconnector), while estimated to be €1.9 billion, will be covered in only nine years, thanks to annual benefits forecast to be between €250 and €290 million.
Advanced technical studies, co-funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), are currently being carried out by the French and Spanish transmission system operators, RTE and REE, on the underwater electric cable project linking Spain and France across the Bay of Biscay.
The study also says that additional savings can be made through electricity interconnectors, buried underground to minimise the environmental impact, between Spain and France across the Pyrenees.
With these additional interconnection projects, and including the interconnector between Santa Llogaia and Baixas, opened in February 2015, which doubled the interconnection capacity between France and Spain (see EUROPE 11258), the interconnection capacity between Spain and the rest of Europe should be 7.8 GW, corresponding to 7.0% of the capacity installed in Spain by 2020.
The study was conducted to support the work of the high-level group on interconnections for South-West Europe, established by France, Spain, Portugal and the European Commission following the summit on interconnections between France and the Iberian Peninsula in Madrid on 4 March 2015 (see EUROPE 11268). The high-level group met in July 2015 (see EUROPE 11348).
The study is available at: http://goo.gl/0dWajS. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)