A central role in the development of electricity transmission infrastructure in Europe
Every two years, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) adopts a non-binding Union-wide ten-year network development plan (TYNDP), including a European generation adequacy outlook.
The TYNDP plays a central role in the development of electricity transmission infrastructure in Europe, which is needed for achieving the European policy goals.
The main objectives of the TYNDP are:
to identify investment gaps, including cross border capacities
to contribute to a sufficient level of cross-border interconnection and non-discrimination, effective competition and the efficient functioning of the market
to ensure a greater transparency of the European electricity transmission network.
The TYNDP prepared by ENTSO-E builds on national investment plans prepared by the transmission system operators (TSOs) and takes into account the regional investment plans, published every two years.
What's the role of ACER?
ACER is responsible for:
Providing an opinion on the contribution of the TYNDP to ENTSO-E, the European Parliament, Council and Commission, whenever ACER considers this draft is not contributing to the market's transparency and effective competition.
Assessing the consistency between the European TYNDP and the national plans. If inconsistencies are found, ACER recommends amending the national plan or the TYND.
Monitoring the implementation of the TYNDP, after its positive evaluation. If ACER identifies inconsistencies, it investigates the reasons and makes recommendations to TSOs, NRAs and other competent bodies, in order to contribute to the investments' implementation.
What does ACER say?
In its latest Opinion, ACER acknowledges the difficulties arising from the TYNDP process and appreciates the gradual improvements with respect to the previous TYNDP.
However, significant steps forward are still needed, and for this purpose specific recommendations to ENTSO-E are provided:
increase the transparency of the process (e.g. by publishing the list of rejected candidate projects and the reasons for rejection, the consultation documents, and some important data used for the calculations, and providing clarity on how the CBA methodology was implemented).
dismiss the B4-RES benefits and amend or remove the missing benefits according to the NRAs' assessment.
Also, specific recommendations to ENTSO-E on a substantial improvement of future TYNDPs are provided:
delays in the development of future TYNDPs should be avoided
the TYNDP Guidelines should be updated and consulted early enough, as well as properly applied
project benefits should be assessed against a wide and balanced spectrum of plausible scenarios
the identification of infrastructure investment needs should be transparent, the reference network considered clearly defined, relevant study years should be analysed and the target capacities for each boundary should be calculated
the reference grid used for the CBA should consist of only advanced projects which are reasonably certain to be commissioned
the most important parameters for sensitivity analyses should be identified and performed for the mid-term study years in the next TYNDPs
“missing benefits" can only be considered as a temporary solution and ENTSO-E should further increase its effort for the CBA methodology to cover as many areas of benefits as appropriate.
