European smart grid and infrastructure PCIs updated in line with Green Deal

The European Commission has released a first list of energy infrastructure ‘Projects of Common Interest and Projects of Mutual Interest’ in line with the Green Deal.

The list covers a total of 166 projects to deliver cross-border energy infrastructures that can benefit from streamlined permitting and regulatory procedures and become eligible for funding from the Connecting Europe Facility to enable them to be accelerated and thereby support the region’s climate targets.

The list updates and extends the earlier fifth list of PCIs, which are projects connecting two or more EU countries, with the PMIs, which are projects connecting EU countries with others outside.

The list includes 68 projects for electricity interconnections, 12 projects in offshore grids, 65 projects for hydrogen interconnections and electrolysers, five smart electricity grid projects, two smart gas grid projects and 14 cross-border carbon dioxide network projects.

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“Today’s list of cross-border projects draws the new energy map of Europe,” commented Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy.

“The era of EU funding for fossil fuel infrastructure is over. It is now time to invest in energy infrastructure which is fit for a more flexible, decentralised and digitalised system, where consumers are also producers – and most of our energy comes from renewable sources.”

Smart grid PCIs

The five smart electricity grid PCIs, all of which were on the last list, are:

• ACON (Again COnnected Networks) between the Czeck Republic and Slovakia to foster the integration of the two countries’ electricity markets by improving efficiency of distribution networks;
• CARMEN between Bulgaria and Romania to reinforce cross-border TSO cooperation and data sharing, enhance TSO-DSO cooperation, invest in grid expansion and increased capacity for integration of new renewables and improve grid stability, security and flexibility;
• Danube InGrid between Hungary and Slovakia to efficiently integrate the behaviour and actions of market users connected to the electricity networks in the two countries;
• Gabreta Smart Grids between the Czeck Republic and Germany to increase grid hosting capacity, enable remote monitoring and control of MV grids and improve grid observability and network planning;
• GreenSwitch between Austria, Croatia and Slovenia to increase hosting capacity for distributed renewable sources and efficient integration of new loads, improving observability of the distribution network and increasing cross-border capacity.

The two smart gas grid PCIs that maintain their status from the previous list are:

• Connection of Malta to the European gas network with a pipeline interconnection with Italy at Gela;
• Pipeline from the East Mediterranean gas reserves to the Greek mainland via Cyprus and Crete – currently known as the ‘EastMed Pipeline’ – with metering and regulating station at Megalopoli.