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2008-06-03

First UCTE Transmission Development Plan published

In the coming 5 years UCTE TSOs should devote a total investment of ap-proximately 17000 M€ to the development of interconnections and the main internal transmission grid.

The time needed to commission new grid equip-ment (7 to 10 years for overhead lines) combined with an increasing volatility of parameters (energy prices, energy policy decisions on renewables, emis-sion trading schemes, nuclear requirements) mean a great deal of uncer-tainty regarding the location and the amount of future generation and make it more difficult to anticipate future congestions.<linebreak /><linebreak> The UCTE Transmission Development Plan is a survey of investments that UCTE TSOs have either approved or are considering. Most of those investments have already been presented in the TSOs‘ respective Transmission Development Plans. Cross-border and internal investments are both important for the European mar-kets. In order to meet the European energy policy objectives, the transmission grid must be developed while maximizing security and allowing an efficient use of the gen-eration and by this way minimise total cost(from generation to retail). Grid development is influenced by two interrelated parameters: consumption and generation. If consumption is expected to follow a rather low growth rate as a result of improved energy efficiency, generation is affected by major changes resulting from the development of renewable energy sources and the renewal of the oldest thermal plants. It results that the projects already submitted to the TSOs over the next 10 years should result in a net increase (including expected decommissioning of existing plants) of installed generation capacity in UCTE of approximately 220 GW (includ-ing 80 GW of wind power). As consumption over the same period is forecasted to increase by only approxi-mately 90 GW, it results that part of the generation projects shouldn’t be realised, that creates high uncertainties in the identification of future network development needs. Globally, this means that UCTE TSOs should dedicate a total investment of around 17000 M€ to the development of interconnections and the main internal transmis-sion grid over the coming 5 years. Remarkable is that most of these projects refer to overhead lines. If due to external pressure, a more extensive use of under-ground cables would have to be considered, the investment costs would dramati-cally increase.

 

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