EU confirms renewed focus on energy infrastructure with 166 cross-border projects

The EU’s first list of ‘Projects of Common Interest and Projects of Mutual Interest’ (PCI/PMI) is comprised of 166 electricity, gas and hydrogen cross-border projects.

The new list, which will replace the current fifth list of PCIs, is aimed to give a renewed focus to the energy infrastructure needed for a carbon-neutral energy system. In addition to the PCIs, which are between EU countries, the list includes for the first time PMIs with non-EU countries.

In this vein over half of the projects, 85, are for electricity, offshore and smart electricity grids.

With many of these expected to be commissioned between 2027 and 2030, they should enable EU countries to reach the goal of installing 111GW of offshore renewable energy by 2030 towards more than 300GW by 2050 as well as more generally helping to double the renewable electricity production.

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More specifically broken down by the priority ‘corridors’ set out in the TEN-E legislation the PCI/PMI list includes:

• North-south electricity interconnections in western Europe – 21 PCIs and 3 PMIs
• North-south electricity interconnections in central eastern and southeastern Europe – 21 PCIs and 2 PMIs
• Baltic energy market interconnection plan – 21 PCIs
• North Sea offshore grids – 4 PCIs and 2 PMIs
• Baltic energy market interconnection plan offshore grids – 2 PCIs
• South and west offshore grids – 2 PCIs
• Atlantic offshore grids – 2 PCIs.

No projects were submitted for the south and east offshore grids corridor.

For the first time, the list includes hydrogen and electrolyser projects with their contribution to help decarbonise the EU industry, as well as CO2 network projects in line with EU goals to create a market for carbon capture and storage.

These include:

• Hydrogen interconnections in western Europe – 52 PCIs and 1 PMI
• Hydrogen interconnections in central eastern and southeastern Europe – 9 PCIs
• Baltic energy market interconnection plan – 3 PCIs
• Cross-border carbon dioxide network – 12 PCIs and 2 PMIs.

The list also includes 5 smart electricity grid PCIs – all carried in the 5th PCI list, as were the majority of the interconnection projects – as well as 2 gas PCIs that maintain their status from previously derogation.

However, there are no smart gas grids projects, with none of those submitted found to be eligible.

All of these projects are in line to benefit from streamlined permit granting and regulatory support and are also eligible for EU financing from the Connecting Europe Facility.

For the new projects to apply for EU funding, the Commission will launch a first call for PCIs and PMIs before the second half of April 2024, with a deadline at the end of October 2024.

Under the TEN-E regulation, the list must be updated and adopted every two years.