The European Commission showed its determination on Friday 24 November to encourage stronger electricity interconnections between EU, proposing a revised list of energy infrastructure projects of common interest (PCIs) which includes 110 projects in the electricity and smart networks sector (see other article) and providing guidelines to eliminate bottlenecks which remain in the sector and achieve an electricity interconnection target of 15% by 2030.
Energy and Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete stated that 17 member states had already reached the interconnection target set for the EU of at least 10% of their energy generation capacity by 2020, making clear, however, that further efforts were necessary to integrate the Iberian Peninsula, South-East Europe, Poland, the Baltic States and Ireland in the European electricity network.
Interconnection development must also be used to integrate the electricity generated from renewable sources which comes in large part from the peripheral areas of the EU, he argued.
The Commission says that investment of close to €180 billion will be needed by 2030 to modernise and extend European electricity networks.
The underwater electricity interconnection project in the Bay of Biscay between France and Spain to link the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of the European market (see EUROPE 11577) and the electricity interconnection project by the French and Irish electricity transmission system operators RTE and EirGrid linking France and Ireland, with a transmission capacity of 700 megawatts, are, in this context, of the highest priority for the Commission. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)