e-Highway 2050: Third parties

Third Parties

Beside the direct members of the consortium, a number of third party partners participate in the project. They support the consortium members carrying out their project tasks.

ENTSO-E Third Parties

Austrian Power Grid AG (APG): www.apg.at

Electricity Coordinating Center Ltd. (EKC): www.ekc-ltd.com

Independent Power Transmission Operator S.A. (IPTO): www.admie.gr

Svenska Kraftnät: www.svk.se

e-Highway2050 - the project

The e-Highway2050 project is aimed at developing a methodology to support the planning of the Pan-European Transmission Network. It will result in a modular development plan for possible electricity highways and options for a complete pan-European grid architecture, based on various future power system scenarios.

What are the objectives of the e-Highway2050 Project?

The project aims at delivering a top-down method to support planning of the pan-European transmission network, including possible highways, capable of meeting European needs between 2020 and 2050. Further objectives of the project are to increase public acceptance of grid expansion, to optimise investment cost, to propose governance and regulatory aspects and to support standardisation of grid technology components to optimise future investment. The project aims to increase the acceptance of grid expansion by means of information exchange and consultation processes that incorporate stakeholder opinions. A portfolio of expansion plans will be proposed in which the 2020-2050 proposals optimise the investment costs over this period of time. Governance and regulatory aspects are being analysed to produce a set of proposals which will be reviewed by regulatory authorities. Standardisation efforts are focused on the optimisation of future investment with the support of the manufacturing industry.

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Who are the members?

Members of the project are transmission system operators from Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland and ENTSO-E, university and research institutions together with companies and associations of technology manufacturers and energy and consulting associations.

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What are the benefits of electricity highways?

Electricity highways support the development of a single European electricity market and the decarbonisation of the EU economy.

The development of a single European electricity market emphasises the critical role of interconnections between transmission network operators. The European Commission has highlighted the need to expand interconnections. The liberalisation of the European electricity market aims to create a competitive and truly integrated electricity market in the European Union.

There is a political will to decarbonise the EU economy (see ‘20-20-20 Strategy’ and ‘2050 Energy Roadmap’). Renewable energy sources, key tool of the decarbonisation process, are located at a great distance from consumption centres, e.g. offshore wind in northern Europe or solar resources in the Mediterranean region. Integration of the large potential of renewable energy sources will dramatically change the geography of electricity flows across Europe. There is great variable renewable potential across Europe. The intermittency of renewable energy sources requires more network development for balancing purposes.

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