“We need an EU internal market that enables the generation and transmission of renewable electricity to consumers across the continent”, say the Friends of the Supergrid.Without a functioning internal electricity market, and new market structures, the objective of decarbonising the European energy sector and its economy while at the same time reaching clean energy goals will not be possible.

The Friends of the Supergrid has recently proposed a new market structure to ENTSO-E, ACER and the European Commission which would enable the delivery of southern solar power to consumers in northern Europe, and northern wind power to consumers in the south. These auctions for Very Long-Term Transmission Capacity Allocation, if they were included in one of the new network codes under review, would significantly improve cross-border, and cross-continent trade in electricity. Considering that renewable generation projects dedicated to third European countries demand large investments under “Project Finance” structures, it is crucial to ensure the possibility to use sufficient transmission capacity across the European grid towards the consumption points during their at least 20-year operating life. If this is not provided for in the network codes, the future deployment of renewable energy in Europe will be dramatically impacted, as well as the development of the pan-European grid.Current auctions which last for a maximum of 3 years will not attract investors who would like to build renewables generation plants in one country to sell the energy produced into another country. Future network design must take into account the potential of building renewable generation where they are more efficient and available, such as wind energy in Northern Europe, while enabling the transmission to convey the power to consumption centres across Member States.