The Ten-Year Network Development Plans (TYNDPs) are biennial publications of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and for Gas (ENTSOG). The TYNDPs are considered by the European Commission (EC) when selecting Projects of Common Interest (PCIs). ENTSO-E and ENTSOG are obliged to develop scenarios for the TYNDPs, and in the case of TYNDP 2020, the two organisations have worked together on these scenarios for the second time. The scenarios should not only identify the future demand for electricity and gas infrastructures and projects, but also survey and assess the interactions in a hybrid energy system between the gas and electricity sectors.
The ENTSOs now have presented the final version of the scenarios. The supply and demand data collected by the member transmission system operators (TSOs) for gas and electricity are used to create the central “National Trends” scenario, which reflects the national energy and climate plans of individual member states and recognises the EU climate targets. The “Global Ambition” and “Distributed Energy” scenarios are designed as comprehensive energy scenarios in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. They also consider the EU-27 efforts to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. Laurent Schmitt, Secretary General of ENTSO-E, defines these scenarios as “a comprehensive, reliable and contrasted set of possible energy futures that will allow ENTSO-E and ENTSOG to perform a sound assessment of European infrastructure projects in the TYNDPs”.
There is another ENTSO-E project related to the European Green Deal and its goal of climate neutrality by 2050, and that is the Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Roadmap 2020-2030. In line with the requirements of the EU Clean Energy Package, the RDI Roadmap combines the opportunities offered by technological trends, the needs of TSOs related to grid operation and market development, and the input from the policy objectives of the EC and other stakeholders.
The Roadmap identifies three major areas for RDI – Integrated Systems, Power Grid, and Cyber Physical System – and six European innovation flagships addressing them: cross-sector integration, deep electrification, grid use and development for a pan-EU market, large-scale offshore wind energy integration, secure operation of a widespread hybrid AC/DC grid, and control centre operations and interoperability. It is understood that TSOs in the electricity sector act as catalysts for committed and flexible innovation strategies and that they have already demonstrated their determination to coordinate individual efforts to implement the Green Deal and related policies.
The ENTSO-E RDI Roadmap 2020-2030 is open for consultation until 10 August and will then be submitted to the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) for its opinion. ENTSO-E will organise webinars on both, Roadmap and TYNDP Scenarios, on 2 July and 3 July, respectively.