Grid planning - why we all should care

How do I secure my access to electricity at all times at the flip of a switch for a reasonable price and without negatively impacting the environment? This is a question that matters for everyone in today’s modern societies. Electricity is increasingly key to our way of life. As Europe gears up to fulfil its objectives and its international commitment on climate, more electricity will be needed for our transport, our heating and cooling, our smart homes, our electrified lifestyle. This is why planning the power grid of the future is of interest to all.

If the power sector is the engine of the energy transition, the grid is the ‘transmission belt’. Europe needs a fit-for-purpose grid to connect smart cities with one another, to shift large volumes of renewable energy from one part of Europe to the other, to accommodate new technologies and energy models and serve more and more active customers.

The TYNDP, as a joint European grid planning exercise, offers high quality answers to this founding question: what grid does Europe need to decarbonise its economy? Since 2013 , the TYNDP is also the first step in a long process identifying the urgent European infrastructure projects – the so-called projects of common interest (PCIs).

For all these reasons, as many parties as possible should be concerned about the quality of the TYNDP, get involved and support ENTSO-E in its effort to make the process even more open and collective.

How and when to best engage with stakeholders

Public concerns need to be dealt already in the earliest phase of grid development, i.e. the point in time when the need for a new power-line is being determined. Projects, which are needed to fulfil a broad societal wish, e.g. to allow for an increased share of renewables, are more acceptable for many stakeholders than those where this is not visibly the case.

The public needs to understand why a new line or piece of infrastructure is needed. The sooner and the better one can demonstrate how a project is supporting broad societal concerns such as climate protection or security of supply, the bigger the chances are of gaining public support.

Therefore, already the process of developing future electricity scenarios needs to be participative and transparent.

Furthermore, many stakeholders understand that infrastructure is an enabler of energy policy choices. For others, the linkage between future scenario development and modelling on the one hand, and grid needs on the other, is however far from clear. Therefore, providing transparency also requires explaining in proper language how the electricity system functions and how decisions on infrastructure affect electricity generation options, and vice versa.

The TYNDP does evaluate the importance of proposed power-line projects against different future scenarios, hence contributing to the identification of the most robust future grid development needs. Its legitimacy is therefore an important building block in European grid infrastructure support.

ENTSO-E is focusing especially in its forthcoming TYNDP on how to increase stakeholder engagement in the early phases of grid development. Improving in this area is clearly one of the big levers for gaining support for the projects.

Participation in the TYNDP - how is it being done

There is a bouquet of possibilities to get engaged in the TYNDP:

• online public consultations advertised in advance on entsoe.eu.
• public workshops which tend to be web streamed.
• webinars

The best way to keep up-to-date is to register on entsoe.eu to the ENTSO-E newsletter. Each Friday, a round-up is sent with what happened over the week and what is coming up including consultations, workshops and events. This is the first action to take for not missing anything. All stakeholder events can also be found on entsoe.eu/tyndp

The Network Development Stakeholder Group

ENTSO-E has created the Network Development Stakeholder Group. This is a permanent group gathering in a single setting 16 European organisations which represent a wide spectrum of stakeholders: consumers, NGOs, public authorities, regulators, generators, traders, manufacturers, other grid operators’ associations, etc. The Network Development Stakeholder Group is about building longer term relations with the key representatives of the full power sector chain and try and reach common decisions. More information on the Group can be consulted on entsoe.eu/tyndp.