CurrENT Europe

The European Union needs to double targeted investment to meet its 2030 climate goal to 800 billion a year if it wants to reach its 2030 climate goals, a recent report by the European Climate Neutrality Observatory finds. To deliver on the 2030 climate goal, the bloc’s share of renewable electricity must grow 1.4 times faster.  Investment in grid infrastructure is needed to expand the share of renewable electricity to fully integrate this expanded share of the renewable energy supply. Innovative grid technologies can be installed quicker and at a lower cost than traditional grid infrastructure developments and should be prioritised for investment to reach 2030 targets and beyond.  You can read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/erU_dqmJ 

CurrENT is looking forward to attending EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and Joint Research Centre's (JRC) webinar today, taking place online from 14:30 – 15:30, “ensuring sufficient grid capacity for electricity trade”. The joint webinar will present and discuss the key findings from their 2024 publications, ACER’s yearly report on cross-zonal transmission capacitates and JRC’s future-looking assessment on the evolution of congestion management in the current EU design. In early 2024, the European Commission proposed a 90% emissions reduction target for the year 2040 in reference to the year 1990, and the deployment of distributed renewable generation is crucial to achieve this target. However, the two publications forecast an increase in power grid congestion in the coming years, thus limiting the integration of EU markets and curtailing renewable energy production. To address this, ACER calls for the swift implementation by Member States and TSOs of the 3 tools foreseen by EU rules to meet the 70% minimum requirement, and the JRC proposes to introduce further incentives for system-friendly investment and operation. Innovative grid technologies are proven to be an effective solution to grid congestion and curtailment, where the deployment of innovative grid technologies can increase the capacity of the existing grid, allowing for more energy to be transmitted. You can still register for the webinar yourself by following the link: https://lnkd.in/gHKa3fVJ

On the 27th of June the European Council adopted its Strategic Agenda for the 2024 – 2029 cycle. The agenda calls for strengthening Europe’s competitiveness and aiming to become the first carbon neutral continent by 2050.  CurrENT welcomes grids being mentioned as a key area of focus for making a success of the green and digital transition, where the agenda further underlines the need for “ambitious electrification using all net-zero- and low-carbon solutions, and investment in grids, storage and interconnections.” Innovative grid technologies can play a critical role in achieving Europe’s decarbonisation goals and should be central in any discussions surrounding grid investments for the future. You can read the full strategic agenda laid out by the council here: https://lnkd.in/eeX7UaGS 

CurrENT welcomes the conclusions of the recent Copenhagen Infrastructure forum, particularly: 🤝 The recognition of the work carried out by ACER and CEER surrounding regulatory investments and the promotion of “innovative, efficiency enhancing grid technologies through tariff design and methodology” and tasking ACER to further support NRAs in implementing these innovative regulatory approaches  📖 The forum calling for an agreed EU catalogue of output (supported by input) indicators for smart grids at all voltage levels to be fully developed and present it to the next Forum meeting.  💶 The forum calling for an uptake of anticipatory investments and of network efficiency technologies  "Technologies that can rapidly increase the capacity of the existing grid are here, they are available, they can be deployed in a matter of months" said Mark Norton, Vice-Chair of CurrENT.   You can read the all the conclusions in the following link: https://lnkd.in/efXdR6jz 

📢 Newsletter released📢 We just published our second quarterly CurrENT newsletter of the year. It details our contributions to policy work, events we hosted, as well as news from our members. You can read the full newsletter here 👉 : https://lnkd.in/efE3K7gV Don't miss out! Subscribe to the newsletter and get it sent straight to your inbox 📨 : http://eepurl.com/hj0r9b #innovativegridtechnologies #energygrids #energynews

Our Vice-Chair Mark Norton is at the Copenhagen Infrastructure Forum today on behalf of CurrENT. Its great for CurrENT to be represented at such an influential forum making important interventions on the future of Europes energy grid. Innovative grid technologies will need to play a key role for energy grids and Europe’s decarbonisation goals. #EnergyIF #CopenhagenInfrastructureForum

🚨 CurrENT's latest study with Compass Lexecon, 'Prospects for Innovative Power Grid Technologies', featured this week in Smart Energy International's Tech Talk. The article, written by Jonathan Spencer Jones, provides an overview of the study and the key takeaways. 💶 One of the takeaways from the study shows that regulatory barriers are delaying the wide scale deployment of innovative grid technologies. For example, there is a lack of incentives to opt for non-CAPEX intensive solutions and insufficient output incentives and incentives for innovation. The study highlights how an update of regulatory incentives can help fostering the rollout of innovative grid technologies and provide major benefits to the system. 💡The study, supported by Breakthrough Energy , examines eight different innovative grid technologies, analyses the potential of innovative grid technologies through cases studies, and assesses the role they can play in helping Europe reach its decarbonistion goals. 📩You can download the full study here: https://lnkd.in/eWywpFYb You can read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eJhXwfq6

It's great to see Christian Pilgaard Zinglersen , Director of EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), including some of the results from our most recent study, 'Prospects for Innovative Power Grid Technologies', at the opening day of the Copenhagen Infrastructure Forum. Innovative grid technologies can greatly improve the network capacity of the grid, as well as bringing down costs compared to conventional expansion, and will need to play a big role in Europe's decarbonisation efforts. 💡The study carried out with Compass Lexeconand supported by Breakthrough Energy , examines eight different innovative grid technologies, analyses the potential of innovative grid technologies through cases studies, and assesses the role they can play in helping Europe reach its decarbonistion goals. 📩You can download the full study here: https://lnkd.in/eWywpFYb #CopenhagenInfrastructureForum #energyIF #ProspectsforInnovativePowerGridTechnologies

Yesterday, Chair of CurrENT Christian Kjaer, spoke at the CRU Cables and Wires conference discussing the need for widescale deployment of innovative grid technologies. Christian presented four key questions that need to be asked when considering how we are designing the energy grid for a decarbonised future. ⚡ What does a system without carbon look like? ⚡What kind of grid do we need? ⚡How big a grid do we need? ⚡What would be the optimal circuit sizes within corridors be? 🛠 Innovative grid technologies can be central to answering these questions, and expanding and developing a new toolbox including these technologies will be essential. 💶 Failing to deploying innovative grid technologies technologies is contributing to the curtailment of renewable energy and is costing consumers billions. In the past two years alone, German congestion cost alone cost consumers €7.3 billion 19 TWh of mainly wind and solar, was lost due to grid bottle necks. This needs to be addressed quickly.

🚨 New study released 🚨 Widespread deployment of Innovative grid technologies can accelerate the expansion of both distribution and transmission grids. That is one the key takeaways from our latest study with Compass Lexecon, ‘Prospects for Innovative Power Grid Technologies.’ As Europe becomes more electrified, bigger grids with increased capacity will be critical to support the integration of increased renewables.  🚀Even with a reasonably conservative deployment of innovative grid technologies, the needed transmission grids expansion can be accelerated by 5 to 8 years and distribution grids expansion can be accelerated by 4 to 7 years.  💡The study, supported by Breakthrough Energy , examines eight different innovative grid technologies, analyses the potential of innovative grid technologies through cases studies, and assesses the role they can play in helping Europe reach its decarbonistion goals. 📩You can download the full study here: https://lnkd.in/eWywpFYb    #ProspectsforInnovativePowerGridTechnologies #EnergyGrids #InnovativeGridTechnologies Brian Berry | Layla Sawyer | Alberto Méndez Rebollo | Christian Kjaer | Mark Norton | Marie Hayden | Grace McLoughlin | Stephan Heberer | Peter Hughes | Max Luke | Julia Selker | Manuel Trigueiros Rafael Ferreira de Lemos | Ewan Ramsay | Jack McCall | Edward Wylie | Martin Andrae | Hedd Roberts | Jørgen Festervoll | Frederic Vassort | Lars Stephan | Sankara Subramanian | Dominic Quennell | Isobel Arrowsmith | Baptiste Gary | Erich Kaltmann | Wolfgang Troppauer | Geoffrey Riggs | Georg Rute | John Fitzgerald