Why a meshed grid is the key to decarbonise Europe

March 7, 2024 Editor

Conference delivers call to action for ‘gargantuan’ grid task to decarbonise Europe

Are we able to calculate a model of the electricity grid of the future using the software of today?

The question was posed by Professor Dirk Van Hartem of Belgian university KU Leuven. And his answer was ‘no’.

However, he stressed that inaction was not an option: “Because we don’t know exactly how the future will look like, does not mean we should not start working on it today.

“Today the technology is not perfect… but we can make a start.”

Van Hartem was speaking at a conference organised by currENT, the European association of grid technology companies.

Called A Grid to Decarbonise Europe, the conference spotlighted work undertaken by currENT, KU Leuven, superconductor company Supernode, and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, to model a potential blueprint for Europe’s electricity grid.

CurrENT secretary-general Layla Sawyer told the conference in Brussels that in terms of grid innovation: “Up to now, we have been inching forward. That’s not going to cut it. We need to look at the technology gaps.”

That ‘gap’ is more of a chasm now, and Sawyer’s collaborators were keen to stress the magnitude of the problem.

“This is a gargantuan challenge,” said Supernode chief executive John Fitzgerald. “The grid has been developing very slowly and incrementally.”

He highlighted some ironies of the grid. “Europe’s power system runs incredibly well… but it runs on carbon. And we have a climate crisis.”

When things go right with the grid – namely, when it operates as it should – he said “nothing happens. If things go wrong, we are the villains.”

He said grid operators were “the watchers on the wall” and they “need our help to keep the lights on”.

That help, he said, needs to come in the shape of a new grid, a DC overlay grid on top of an AC network.

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“A DC grid is the best contender to solve our problems,” added Prof Van Hartem, who wondered if “we should have one TSO to rule them all”?

He said meshed HVDC grids “are the only realistic option” to build a “new backbone grid”.

He outlined how building this grid would come within timelines: multi-terminal connections between now and 2030; offshore energy hubs fired up between 2030 and 2035; meshed offshore grids and first deep island reinforcement between 2035 and 2045; and EU-wide interconnection from 2045 onwards.

However, he said this work should not be held to ransom by current EU targets. “We hope that by 2050 we will have a decarbonised Europe. But if it’s 2060 – that’s okay.”