During a debate in the Energy Council on Monday 15 December, the European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jørgensen, defended to the European Ministers the “top-down” approach presented in the new ‘networks’ package, which had been published the previous week (see EUROPE 13770/4). This approach involves planning European electricity and hydrogen networks on an EU-wide scale, with the development of an “overall EU central scenario”.
“This may be controversial, but we really need to remind each other that this is not a zero-sum game. The fact that the EU will get more power to plan is not taking away power from Member States”, explained the Commissioner in his introduction.
He also reassured that planning would always be based on national data and that the work of national transmission system operators (TSOs) would remain “extremely important”.
However, a number of countries have expressed concerns, including France, Italy and Sweden.
“Planning is an element that must ultimately remain the responsibility of the Member States, because it determines the level of network costs for citizens (...) and it is a fundamental element in ensuring the security of the system”, explained the French Deputy Permanent Representative, Cyril Piquemal.
He therefore supported a strengthened regional cooperation framework, “in which Member States, their regulatory authorities and their network operators retain a role in prioritising and identifying investments”.
For Sweden, it is surprising that this package is not more demand-driven, fearing that the costly expansion of networks will lead to a massive increase in network tariffs, directly affecting European households.
The Swedish Minister, Ebba Busch, also rejected the proposal to use part of the revenue from congestion to invest in interconnections on the PIC/PIM list.
Among other things, Germany regretted that there was no risk reduction mechanism for cross-border hydrogen infrastructures and that the proposal did not go far enough in addressing the challenges of cyber security.
Overall, a large majority of countries welcomed the general ambition of the new package.
For Greece, which defends a centralised European scenario, the proposal represents “one of the most important documents we have received from the Commission in recent years”. Spain mentions “a turning point” to eliminate historical bottlenecks. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)