EU Grid Action Plan highlights the importance of networks for the energy transition

The European Commission’s Grid Action Plan underlines the urgency to collectively start implementing the available technologies to speed up grid development, writes Eamonn Lannoye, Europe Managing Director of EPRI.

Electricity grids that are interconnected and reliable enable the delivery of affordable and clean power for European consumers. According to the European Union (EU), there are more than 11 million kilometres of electric power networks across the EU’s internal market, a physical infrastructure being developed to facilitate the EU’s Fit for 55 energy transition targets.

Transmission and distribution grids, in Europe and around the world, face similar challenges moving forward. The EU has recognised that there will be growing demand and grid pressures caused by electrification, grid modernisation, integration of the increased share of renewable power (including wind and solar), and the opportunities presented by increased cross-border trade, new hydrogen infrastructure, energy storage, and charging infrastructure.

The EU has called for Europe’s network to “rapidly upgrade and expand” with new investment at both the transmission and distribution levels. The European Commission estimates that as much as €584 billion in investments will be necessary by 2030.

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As a result, the European Commission recently created a “European Grid Action Plan” to guide grid planning and investment.

The Action Plan identifies seven horizontal challenges for accelerating European grid development and 14 actions:

1. Accelerating the implementation of existing Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) and developing new projects
   • Action 1: Commission, Member States and Transmission System Operators (TSOs) to strengthen support to PCI and PMI preparation, faster implementation and funding.
2. Enhancing long-term network planning
   • Action 2: ENTSO-E to enhance top-down planning towards 2050 by integrating the identification of offshore and onshore system needs and further considering hydrogen.
   • Action 3: EU DSO Entity to support DSO grid planning by mapping the existence and characteristics of distribution development plans.
3. Introducing a supportive, future-proof regulatory framework
   • Action 4: Commission to propose guiding principles identifying conditions under which anticipatory investments in grid projects should be granted.
   • Action 5: Commission to issue guidance on cross-border cost sharing for offshore projects.
4. Making better use of existing grids and smartening them;
   • Action 6: ENTSO-E and EU DSO Entity to agree on harmonised definitions for available grid hosting capacity for system operators and to establish a pan-EU overview.
   • Action 7: ENTSO-E and EU DSO Entity to promote uptake of smart grid, network efficiency and innovative technologies.
   • Action 8: ACER, in its next tariff report, to recommend best practices in relation to the promotion of smart grids and network efficiency technologies through tariff design, focusing on the consideration of OPEX in addition to CAPEX and benefit sharing.
5. Improving access to financing
   • Action 9: Commission to identify tailored financing models and strengthen dialogue to address obstacles to private financing.
   • Action 10: Commission to increase visibility on opportunities from EU funding programmes for smart grids and modernisation of distribution grids.
6. Ensuring faster and leaner permitting processes
   • Action 11: Commission to support permitting acceleration providing guidance and technical support on how to implement existing legislative tools and Member States to implement acceleration measures.
   • Action 12: Commission to launch a Pact for Engagement for early, regular and meaningful stakeholder engagement and regulatory support.
7. Strengthening supply chains.
   • Action 13: ENTSO-E and EU DSO Entity to collaborate with technology providers to develop common technology specifications and improve visibility of grid project pipelines, to facilitate investments in manufacturing capacity and secure supply chains.
   • Action 14: Commission to promote common technical requirements for generation and demand connection.

Accelerating grid development

EPRI recognises the potential to accelerate the pace of grid development and overcome the obstacles needed to achieve these goals. The Action Plan identifies the need to rapidly scale concepts that EPRI, a global independent, non-profit energy research and development organisation, along with many more collaborating industry stakeholders, have been readying for deployment.

From a technical perspective, we see this as a seminal moment for the acceleration of key practices and technologies including:

Action 2: Offshore grid planning: EPRI Europe together with other are developing the methods needed to plan and develop  hybrid DC/AC grids through the Commission-funded HVDC-WISE project, advanced power system analysis for offshore grid projects, HVDC and underground cables research programs, high-level grid development for offshore sea basins and other research explored by our Offshore Wind Interest Group.

Action 2: Energy systems & flexibility: As planning decisions concurrently consider electricity, fuels, and emissions supply chains, end-to-end planning models are moving towards integrated energy systems analyses. Through the Mopo project, supported with industry engagement, vital data sets and a pan-European energy systems analysis toolbox to conduct detailed energy systems models are under development.

Action 3: Distribution planning: EPRI members have been at the forefront of the application and development of advanced distribution planning tools that are in use around the world and have moved transmission-distribution cooperation from concept, to pilot, to implementation. Energy companies engaged with EPRI programs to inform the need and test the application of new practices and tools, participate in EU projects such as OneNet, and initiatives such as the Global DSO workshops to provide their unique perspectives.

Action 4: Anticipatory grid development: Coordinating grid development with the emergence of generation projects has been an ongoing area of EPRI research, resulting in new approaches to determining grid development needs that may improve integration efficiency and increase grid robustness.

Action 6: Hosting capacity: As an early developer of the hosting capacity concept, extending from distribution to transmission and considering an ever-increasing range of variables and behaviours, EPRI has helped support dozens of regions in implementing hosting capacity projections.

Action 7: Grid technologies: In a forthcoming new initiative, will global grid operators will convene through EPRI to assess and prepare for the implementation of Grid Enhancing Technologies, building on the existing research outcomes in this area. EPRI actively monitors an array of grid operation technologies and practices and maintains awareness of the state-of-the-art energy system technology costs and performance to assist in planning studies.

Action 10: EU Funding opportunities: EPRI Europe extends global EPRI’s collaborative model to engage with the EU’s Horizon Europe and Clean Hydrogen Partnership programs to address critical challenges. These programs have been critical to seeding the development of major concepts and breakthroughs for the European energy transition over time.

Action 13: Accelerating standardization: EPRI has been instrumental in supporting the development of official standards by helping establish industry standard practices and by providing expertise for the standardization of new and emerging grid technologies.

The Commission developed the Action Plan with the goal of making Europe’s electricity grids “stronger, more interconnected, more digitalized, and cyber-resilient” by 2030.  

Realising those ambitions will take a collaborative and determined effort across the industry.