Accompanied by European Commissioner for Climate Action Miguel Arias Cañete, the Portuguese prime minister António Costa welcomed to Lisbon to assess progress in integration of the Iberian peninsula into the single energy market in the EU French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Spanish prime minister, the politicians also examining how to boost cooperation regionally between Spain, France and Portugal.
The three leaders and the Commission were expected to sign a statement indicating the path to be followed to boost regional cooperation in the field of interconnection. The statement is based on the Madrid statement of March 2015, which launched the integration process and set up a High Level Group chaired by the Commission to steer progress (see EUROPE 11268).
In addition, a grant agreement worth €578 million will be signed by the European Investment Bank for the electricity line crossing the Bay of Biscay.
With 280 kilometres of electricity interconnection, the link will double by 2025 the exchange capacity between France and Spain and bring Spain closer to the 15% interconnection target contained in the new regulation on the governance of the Energy Union.
The lack of sufficient interconnection capacity remains an obstacle for the creation of an electricity market in South-West Europe and has prevented Iberian energy companies from fully participating in the EU electricity market.
With an interconnection capacity of only 6,000 MW, Spain and with it, Portugal, remains largely an energy island that does not participate fully in the European electricity market, noted the European Commission before the meeting, stating that integrating the Iberian peninsula into the Single Market was a priority for the Juncker Commission.
In addition to the Bay of Biscay line, the EU backs: - an interconnection project between Spain and Portugal which, once operational in 2021, will allow Portugal to achieve 10% interconnection and increase interconnection capacity to 3.2 GW; - Pyrenean crossings: two projects to increase the electricity interconnection capacity between Spain and France across the Pyrenees; - the STEP project aims at increasing the bidirectional flows between the Iberian Peninsula and France and improve the interconnection with the internal gas market through the development of the Eastern gas axis, including a third interconnection point between Spain and Portugal.
The Santa-Llogaia-Baixas/INELFE project: the completion in June 2017 of the phase-shifter transformer in Arkale, Spain, enabled the full utilisation of the Santa-Llogaia-Baixas interconnection between Spain and France, doubling the electricity interconnection capacity between both countries. These investments, co-financed by the European Commission, made it possible for Spain to help France and show solidarity during periods of supply-demand stress during the winter of 2017. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)