The European Commission proposed this Wednesday to form a coordinating agent and facilitator decisions between neighboring countries to accelerate electrical interconnections which, for example, in the case of the Iberian Peninsula, remain well below what was expected due to the France’s reluctance to increase the trans-Pyrenean passage of electricity. Brussels identifies the interconnections between Aragon and Catalonia and France as one of the eight “energy highways” that are planned to be accelerated in the catalog of measures on the EU’s electricity networks that it approved this Wednesday, in which it considers necessary invest 730 billion -only to transport electricity- and for what that poses too reduce delays in administrative procedures carry out projects that guarantee that they will result in a reduction in electricity bills for both homes and industries.
Brussels approved the so-called “Network plan“who proposes to give a big boost to the construction of electricity networks and its interconnection between the different countries of the EU and that for this purpose it plans to give “a a truly European perspective planning” of infrastructures that it considers “essential” to guarantee energy autonomy and the integration of electricity from renewable sources, at the very moment when the EU has just agreed to abandon 100% of Russian gas imports. The consequence will also be cleaner and more “affordable” energy, which will result in pockets of consumers and also of European industrywhich is losing competitiveness worldwide due to the higher cost of electricity. According to figures proposed by Brussels this Wednesday, in 2024 industrial prices in the EU reached 0.199 eros per kWh, while in China they were 0.082 and in the United States 0.075. The fact that cheaper, renewable electricity is not circulating in the EU in the quantity it should and that there is not enough investment in networks also opens a gap between the price of electricity in member states’ homes, from 0.38 euro/kWh in Germany and 0.27 in Ireland to 0.08 in Finland.
To prevent this from happening, Brussels wants to give a “European perspective” when planning electricity network infrastructure, which, the Spanish government hopes, will immediately significantly increase electricity interconnection with France, so that Spain and Portugal cease to be “energy islands”. According to the Commission’s approach, Brussels intends “promote political coordination”, in the working groups and the European coordinators who even “will expand its reach beyond countries of the EU when necessary”, provided that the eight interconnections it designates as most necessary in the “short term” are a reality.
Among the eight points – “electric highways”– in which the Commission identifies the most serious “bottlenecks” which prevent the circulation of “clean and cheap” electricity, it is that of the “Iberian Peninsula”, which consists of “interconnections across the Pyrenees to better integrate the Iberian Peninsula”, through connections between Navarre and Landres (called “Crossing the Pyrenees 1”) and between Aragon and Marsillon (“Crossing the Pyrenees 2”.
In addition, Brussels has identified another corridor which also passes through Spain, in this case hydrogenand also considers that it is necessary to confront in the short term the one that unites Portugal and Germany, what was called at the time H2Mednow identified as the “Southwest Hydrogen Corridor”.
Ending isolation
“We are proposing a new way to take inventory and plan new infrastructure,” explained the energy commissioner. Dan Jorgensenduring a press conference in Brussels with the Vice-President of the Commission Therese Ribera, who declared that “we want to end energy isolation from which certain Member States suffer” and respond to what he called “a new era of electricity”, with electricity networks that allow integrate more renewable energies and that the EU “far from fossil fuels, increase resilience and that national systems support each other. “We are moving from fragmented national plans to European planning,” Ribera said.
Besides the fact that countries are “doing better” and are also making a best use of the capacity of already existing networks, Jorgensen explained that this is “the Commission is developing a centralized base plan for networksby identifying what is needed and where it is needed. “To do this, you have to give.”more competition with the EU”, that is to say the Commission, and “give the means” to the Member States “to do what is necessary and to form a common front on the basis of a single European map”.
The Energy Commissioner did not deny the “reluctances” that France usually shows by increasing electricity interconnection with Spain, which does not reach 3% and is very far from the 15% interconnection objective that the EU has set for 2030 and which has not been achieved in the majority of the community territory. More than forcing, the key with which Brussels convinces countries is to make them understand thatand they also win and that if the benefit is not so tangible in a specific project, it can be in others that it involves, it is a context in which the power outage in the Iberian Peninsula on April 28 This should also be a lesson learned.
“I won’t offend anyone if I say that France has doubts about improving interconnection, “but even France cannot escape 40 annual power outages due to its interconnections with other countries,” said Jorgensen, who indicated that power zeros would be much more serious “if the EU were less interconnected. “All Member States will be better off with interconnections because they will lower prices and there will be greater energy security” in an EU which today imports fossil fuels for more than 370 billion fossil fuels per year, which, according to the commissioner, is “not sustainable”, neither climatically nor economically.
The most expensive electricity in the least interconnected countries
In addition to future benefits, the European Commission will attempt convince European governments to invest more networks and expand electrical interconnections with new instruments to “cost sharing” and financial tools which he intends to present this spring so that private investors consider these projects as “attractive”.
In fact, it will be private investors who will have to invest the majority of the funds 730,000 million euros that the European Commission estimates are necessary by 2040 for the EU to have adequate electricity networks and up to 1.2 billion if others 470 billion for hydrogen networks. In this way, for example, the EU will stop losing 41 gigawatts of electricity due to lack of interconnections, which it estimates will happen until 2030 in the current situation and will be able to undertake projects with supply needs of 1,700 GW that are waiting to have an electricity connection.
“It’s about huge investments those that are necessary, but yes If we do not achieve them, the costs will be enormous. »Jorgensen warned, emphasizing that the majority of necessary investments must go to private investors, even though the Commission has quintupled the energy item in the EU budget for 2021-2027, from 5.8 billion to almost 30,000.
Adapting European electricity distribution networks to their real needs will enable annual savings of around 40,000 millionsays the Commission, where Ribera and Jorgensen also worked extensively this Wednesday on the argument that this would reduce electricity bills for households and industry. “If you look at the map of Europe, price differencesit is very clear that where are very high, that’s where the interconnections are the worst,” explained the Energy Commissioner, who added that “when the investments are made, the bill will decrease, because we will be able to integrate more renewable energy into the system”, in which now 330,000 people are already saved thanks to green production.
Shorten timelines for building networks
In addition to the new financial tools that the Commission will present in the spring to investors consider it “attractive” invested their money in the construction of electricity networks, Ribera and Jorgensen influenced the imperative need to shorten the time limits of the administrative procedure to build new electricity grid infrastructure. Currently, these procedures alone can take more than five years and are easily half the decade it takes to deploy the power grids the EU now largely relies on for competitiveness.
Like the speed that we tried to introduce a few years ago into the deployment of renewable power plants, Brussels is now proposing that the administrative procedure for electricity distribution networks cannot last more than two years or three years for the most complex projects.
“The average execution time for a distribution network project is greater than 10 years, half of which is devoted to permits and licenses. “This must change radically” Jorgensen said, while Ribera defended “speed up the authorization process to reduce delays” without “having to wait 5 years to obtain a permit as is the case today”.
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