Also, €30.1 billion of investments are needed in Germany by 2020, added the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (Entso-e). EU law requires it to produce a Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP) every two years.
However, Entso-e claimed that a third of investments face delays because of the long permitting processes combined with public opposition to power lines. The European Commission has proposed rules to speed up permitting.
The spending – more than 100 projects to build or refurbish about 51,500km of high-voltage lines – are needed to meet EU environmental and energy targets and an expected 8% growth in peak load by 2020. Renewable generators, mainly wind and photovoltaic plants, are expected to trigger 80% of the TYNDP spending.
However, regulators still need to allocate costs in many cases, said Jean Verseille, chairman of Entso-e’s system development committee.
Although new generation capacity equivalent to a third of present EU capacity is needed by 2020 – equating to an extra 3 per cent per year – the grid needs to be extended annually by only 1.3 per cent, despite the big change in the generation mix, said Entso-e.
By Vic Wyman