Study on electricity infrastructure developments in Central and South Eastern Europe : final report

In 2002, the European Council in Barcelona agreed on "the target for Member States of a level of electricity interconnections equivalent to at least 10% of their installed production capacity by 2005". This target, expressed in terms of Net Transfer Capacity (NTC), was reiterated by the European Council in May 2013. In May 2014, the Commission proposed to extend the current 10% electricity interconnection target to 15% by 2030 while taking into account the cost aspects and the potential of commercial exchanges in the relevant regions. The European Council Conclusions requested that the EC, supported by the Member States, takes measures in order to ensure the achievement of a minimum target of 10% of existing electricity interconnections, as a matter of urgency, and no later than 2020 at least for Member States which have not yet attained a minimum level of integration in the internal energy market. Despite the original target date of 2005, twelve Member States had still not met the 10% target as of 2014, including three of the five largest power systems in Europe. The TEN-E Regulation identifies 4 priority electricity corridors (in its Annex I) which aim to identify Projects of Common Interest that support the achievement of internal market, sustainability and security of supply. In particular, the TEN-E Regulation identifies the NSI East Electricity priority corridor comprising Member States from Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe. For this purpose, in the second PCI list (Regulation (EU) 2016/89), 42 (out of 108) PCIs in the electricity sector belong to the NSI East Electricity corridor. However, this corridor shows a high degree of delay of PCI implementation, especially for financing and permitting issues.