The grid capacity quagmire
Greek and European operators are forced to reject RES power to preserve system stability
The European electricity industry is expected to send a warning on Wednesday from Athens to the European Union ahead of the June 9 European elections that “keeping the lights on can no longer be taken for granted.”
The concerns of electricity companies are linked to the significant lag in grid development, which can threaten not only the achievement of the European climate goals but also Europe’s energy security.
The title of Eurelectric’s annual conference Power Summit 2024, to be held for the first time in Greece, hosted by PPC and with the participation of approximately 500 experts from the sector, is “Lights ON.” To keep them on in Europe, according to the “Grids for Speed” study that will be presented by Eurelectric, investments of 67 billion euros per year for the next few years will have to proceed at high speed through 2030. At the same time, to maximize RES generation, storage capacity will need to increase from 4 gigawatts today to 191 GW by 2030. With today’s grid and storage capacity data, renewable energy cuts are expected to reach 30-35% in several regions of Europe by the end of the decade.
This grim reality of Europe’s electricity systems recorded in the Eurelectric report is the result of a design that focused on RES development without taking into account the capacity of networks and storage to absorb and manage their ever-increasing and volatile generation. The management of this new reality combined with the fixation of demand, is a daily exercise for European grid operators which is becoming more and more difficult as RES penetration increases. The main tool for operators across Europe to maintain grid stability is green energy cuts, which combined with the increasingly frequent zero and negative prices, limit investment returns.
The Greek electricity system is a case in point but with particularities, such as the limited international interconnections, which make things even more difficult. However, the biggest problem of the Greek grid is maintaining the stability of the system during midafternoon due to the overproduction by photovoltaics.
