Europe is investing 240 billion euros in the electricity transmission network, with plans to build a new network towards Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia’s assets are the Ernestinovo-Sombor and Lika-Banjaluka interconnections, writes Jutarnji list today.
In continuation of preparations for the complete rejection of Russian gas from its own energy needs, the European Union plans to increase the capacity of its electricity transmission network by 2040 through 141 investments with a total estimated value of 240 billion euros, with the help of countries that are not currently its members.
According to the plan of the European Association of Transmission Network Operators (ENTSO-E), the capacity of transmission lines, cables and other equipment for power transmission across the Old Continent would increase by 142 gigawatts of electricity, by 43,000 new kilometers of network, with 1.6 million new jobs as one of the results of those investments.
The idea of ​​the European electricity transmission operators, whose plan called TYNDP 2022 was put up for public discussion on Monday, is to rapidly connect the growing sources of electricity production from the sun and wind to the grid and thus replace gas as a fuel in electricity production. but also as a source of heating.
This means that TYNDP is also part of the big European Green Plan with the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 14 metric tons per year by 2030 by strengthening the network.
“One of the main benefits of addressing system needs is connecting more consumers to more producers, allowing European countries to exchange electricity to replace expensive thermal generation with cheaper ones, thus reducing Europe’s dependence on gas. Gas-based electricity generation would decrease by 75 terawatt-hours per year until 2040, which is equivalent to 14 percent of electricity production from gas in the EU in 2021,” states the plan of the association ENTSO-E, which gathers 38 European electricity transmission operators.
Among them are operators from countries that are not members of the EU, as well as the Croatian Transmission System Operator (HOPS), which is important for the investments that HOPS must make within the plan of the aforementioned European association.
Namely, out of 141 investments from that plan, the carrier for two is HOPS, but in cooperation with operators from other countries. It is about the construction of a new 400 kilovolt interconnection Ernestinovo-Sombor in cooperation with an operator from Serbia and the strengthening of the Rijeka-Split network with a branch for BiH, i.e. a new 400 kilovolt Lika-Banjaluka interconnection, which requires cooperation with an operator from BiH, reports RTV.
