A ten-year-development plan to reach 2050 goals?

Electricity transmission development plays a central role to attain the ambitious greenhouse gas emission reductions of the EU, which are part of the 2050 Roadmaps currently formulated. However, the present institutional framework for trans-European transmission planning is not suited to achieve these objectives. In particular, the “Ten Year Network Development Plan” to be developed by ENTSO-E and ACER in the framework of the 3rd Energy Package is insufficiently institutionalized and targeted.

Christian von Hirschhausen’s presentation identified shortcomings in the current institutional setting and set out an agenda for long-term transmission planning at the European level. This was complemented by an empirical case study of a top-priority European electricity transmission project of communal interest, the North Sea Grid. Prof.Hirschhausen’s presentation was followed by a roundtable discussion chaired by Georg Zachmann, Research Fellow at Bruegel.