Letter to the Energy Attachés on the remaining concerns on the revision of the TEN-E Regulation

Dear Energy Attaché,

The European power industry, represented by Eurelectric, is committed to be a driving force in delivering a cost-effective energy transition by powering the European Green Deal. Going Forward, we welcome the current revision of the Trans-European Networks-Energy Regulation (TEN-E Regulation).

Eurelectric welcomes the overall proposal of the text adopted by the Council last June, and in particular its approach to soften the eligibility criteria applicable to the category of “Project of Mutual Interest”. With this letter, we would however like to raise awareness of two remaining key points in the framework of the ongoing political trilogue negotiations, which needs urgent attention.

PCI eligibility for decentralized projects: with the Green Deal objectives, the EU will have to significantly scale up renewable electricity generation to reach a share of more than 80% of electricity production from renewable energy sources by 2050. In this respect, we expect to see an additional 510 GW of renewables to be traded across European networks –70% of which will be connected at distribution level. Hence, we call on the Council to ensure that the TEN-E Regulation truly supports projects contributing to the energy and climate objectives. It implies acknowledging the needed transformation of the distribution systems and adopting a wider integrated system approach to drive local infrastructure projects which benefit from the contribution of prosumers and new technologies at distribution level, demand side response, and electro mobility. As proposed by the Parliament, the TEN E Regulation should thus enlarge the eligibility for PCI status of decentralised projects under the “Smart electricity Grids projects” categories where they offer replicability across the EU or synergies for Member States.

Cross-border offshore wind projects as PCIs: Secondly, while we strongly support a coordinated approach to the long-term deployment and integration of offshore renewables between two or more member states, we regret that the Council’s proposal does not include the development of electricity transmission infrastructure from offshore wind farms connected radially and demonstrating a crossborder impact as potential PCIs. Prioritizing only offshore grids for renewable energy having dual functionality of transmission and interconnection as well as traditional electricity interconnectors contradicts the ambitious objectives of the EU Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy since the majority of infrastructure will still base on radial connection.