EWEA is a strong supporter of an integrated power grid in Europe and believes that the BritNed link "going live" last week is very significant.
"The 600 million Euro investment for the 260 kilometres long High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable with a power capacity of 1000 Megawatt between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands will provide a substantial boost to electricity trade between these two market regions. This will ultimately serve for an optimised power system operation and smoothen out the variable output of wind power plants over a large geographical area," said Paul Wilczek, EWEA grids.
"Europe is still far from a truly integrated electricity market, but every step towards a single market helps the cost efficient integration of renewable electricity generation like wind power.". The 1000-MW high voltage connection between the Isle of Grain in Kent and Maasvlakte near Rotterdam will transmit power in both directions, driven by supply and demand patterns and by price differentials between the two power markets. BritNed was completed on time and within the budget of €600 million.
BritNed is a commercial, or 'non-socialised' interconnector, and is funded and operated independently from its joint venture partners National Grid and TenneT's regulated businesses. This interconnector allows 100% third-party-access for all market participants. Customers have open access to the capacity through a combination of 'implicit' auctions (day ahead) facilitated by APX-ENDEX, and BritNed's 'explicit' auctions (annual, monthly, intraday). This approach gives customers real choice about how they bid for capacity and ensures that BritNed supports the ambitions for greater transparency in the European energy markets.
Commenting on the commissioning on the HDVC cable, Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said:“This is good news for our energy security, for UK renewables and for consumers. It plugs the UK directly into a wider European electricity market, allowing us to import our peak needs cheaply rather than hold expensive plant in readiness. Renewables win as it means surplus wind power can be easily shared. Consumers win as a single European market puts pressure on prices. And more new cables are planned so by 2020 we could have over 10GW of additional electricity flowing under the North Sea.”
The launch of this interconnector is an important step forward in the integration of European electricity markets. Alongside grid upgrades, however EWEA warns that "market rules are needed that lead to an efficient allocation of wind power and other renewable generation capacity".
Another recent development was the day-ahead market coupling of the regions of Central-Western Europe, including France, Germany, the Benelux countries and Scandinavia last November. "In addition we now need functioning intraday markets which are crucial for efficient integration of large amounts of wind energy and for cost-efficient system operation in general." stated Wilczek. electricity by 2015."
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