The EU mentioned Wednesday it desires to spice up power hyperlinks between France and Spain as a part of a bloc-wide push to safe energy provides, months after a large outage hit the Iberian Peninsula.
Spain and neighbouring Portugal have typically accused France of dragging its toes on constructing infrastructure to higher join them with Europe’s continental grid.
“I’m in all probability not offending anyone by saying that typically France has been considerably reluctant to have extra interconnections,” Dan Jorgensen, the European Union’s commissioner for power, advised a press convention in Brussels.
The fee introduced Wednesday plans to hurry up allowing and coordinate planning of cross-border grid initiatives, which it says are essential to assist the inexperienced power transition and cut back excessive power costs affecting companies and households.
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The development of two new interconnections linking France and Spain throughout the Pyrenees topped a listing of eight “power highways” Brussels desires to quick observe.
Other initiatives included an “hydrogen hall” operating from Portugal to Germany and a revamp of electrical energy connections throughout the Baltic States.
Interconnections play a central position in securing provides, permitting international locations to import or export power in line with their wants.
Teresa Ribera, the EU’s vp for the clear transition, mentioned higher exchanges had been key to enhancing response to power shocks throughout Europe.
“The extra related we’re, the extra potentialities now we have to react,” she mentioned.
The Iberian Peninsula’s grid operates as an power island, linked to the remainder of Europe solely by a small variety of interconnections with France — one thing that was partially blamed for a sluggish blackout restoration in April.
READ ALSO: Spain’s grid operator and personal companies blame one another for blackout
Better connections are additionally anticipated to deliver down power costs — a bugbear of European companies — by permitting operators to diversify provides and cut back dependency on oil and gasoline, which endure from worth volatility.
Industrial electrical energy costs within the EU reached 0.199 euro per kWh in 2024, in comparison with 0.082 euro in China and 0.075 within the US, in line with the fee.
“No power safety might be achieved in Europe if electrical energy shouldn’t be capable of stream freely throughout the continent,” mentioned Neil Makaroff, director at Strategic Perspectives, a suppose tank.
“Building resilient and built-in grids is the prerequisite if the EU desires to energy its economic system with electrical energy as a substitute of gasoline and oil.”
READ ALSO: Is one other main blackout on its strategy to Spain?
