On Thursday 27 June, at the 10th Energy Infrastructure Forum in Copenhagen, the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, presented a guidance document to Member States on collaborative investment frameworks for offshore renewable energy and grid projects.
Following on from the TEN-E Regulation and the EU Action Plan for Grids, this document aims to provide guidance to Member States, national regulatory authorities and grid operators on how best to organise cost sharing for the development of cross-border offshore grid and renewable projects.
“The guidelines adopted and published today provide a clear direction. They will help to ensure that cost-benefit analyses, as well as cost-sharing and cost-allocation activities, are based on fair principles and sound technical calculations”, said Ms Simson.
In order to accelerate the development of new cross-border projects, the guidance document recommends that Member States and regulators discuss these principles of collaboration at the stage of identifying network needs.
In addition, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) is invited to continue developing effective modelling tools and should now work on implementing the guidance for ‘Offshore Network Development Plans’, which should be published within a year.
The Member States and the national regulatory authorities, supported by the Transmission System Operators (TSOs), will then take decisions on the final allocation of costs at project level in order to guarantee the necessary investment.
Commissioner Simson also welcomed the important political signal sent by the ‘Action Plan for Grids’, adopted in November 2023 (see EUROPE 13302/8). The afternoon’s discussions focused on this plan to ensure more efficient operation and faster deployment of electricity grids.
“It has clearly demonstrated the Commission’s determination to develop our transmission and distribution grids and to tackle bottlenecks. In just over 6 months, the action plan has already made a difference”, said the Commissioner.
However, Ms Simson acknowledged the scale of the work ahead.
“Over the next 10 to 15 years, we will have to redraw the map of infrastructure across the continent. We will need electricity super grids fit for a true Energy Union and our climate neutral objective. The gas network will have to be repurposed to transport hydrogen or CO2”, she explained.
Finally, she acknowledged that mobilising the necessary “high level” public and private investment was one of the biggest challenges of the new legislature.
To see the guidance document: https://aeur.eu/f/cuo (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)