In order to contribute to the development of the European Green Deal, the European Commission proposed on Tuesday an Action Plan to ensure that the electrical networks of the community bloc will work more efficiently and will continue to be implemented more quickly, according to a statement from the Community Executive.
Interconnected and stable energy networks underpin the EU’s internal energy market and are essential to enabling the green transition. The Commission has already established a legal framework to support the expansion of electricity networks across Europe. With the full integration of EU markets, a modernized infrastructure network will ensure that citizens and businesses can benefit from cheaper and cleaner energy, according to Agerpres.
It is expected that, by 2030, electricity consumption in the EU will increase by approximately 60%. Grids will have to adapt to a more digitized, decentralized and flexible system, with millions of rooftop solar panels, heat pumps and local energy communities sharing their resources, more offshore renewable energy sources, more many electric vehicles to charge and increasing hydrogen production needs. Considering that 40% of our electricity networks are more than 40 years old, and our cross-border transmission capacity is set to double by 2030, investments worth €584 billion are needed.
The action plan aims to address the main challenges regarding the expansion, digitalisation and better use of the EU’s electricity transmission and distribution networks. The plan identifies concrete and adapted actions to contribute to unlocking the necessary investments to accelerate European electricity networks.
Actions focus on implementation and rapid results to bring about a change in time to meet the EU’s 2030 targets: accelerating the implementation of projects of common interest and developing new projects through policy coordination, strengthened monitoring and more proposals of projects and improving long-term grid planning to integrate more renewable energy sources into the energy system, including hydrogen, and to respond to electrification demand, by guiding the activity of system operators as well as national regulatory authorities.
Regulatory incentives will also be introduced through forward-looking, forward-looking investment guidelines and cross-border cost sharing for offshore projects, better use of networks will be encouraged through increased transparency and improved network tariffs for smarter networks, a increased effectiveness, as well as innovative technologies and solutions, by supporting cooperation between system operators and the recommendations of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulatory Authorities (ACER).