A leading role in European cooperation
ENTSO-E: working together to build a secure and integrated system
RTE has been closely involved in the founding and running of ENTSO-E, the European network of transmission system operators for electricity. Founded in 2009 and given legal mandates by the Europe’s third energy package, ENTSO-E comprises 42 TSOs from 35 countries, going beyond the borders of the European Union. Hervé Laffaye, RTE’s deputy director in charge of international and European business, was appointed President of the ENTSO-E assembly in February 2019. His mandate, which began in June 2019, runs for two years.
ENTSO-E’s mandates, strengthened by the "Clean energy for all Europeans" package, include a number of major projects:
- Support with the development of network codes. These codes are required in order to operate the synchronous power system on a continental scale, i.e. at the same 50-Hz frequency, to set up the internal energy market by establishing harmonised rules for all member states in areas ranging from grid operation and energy market coordination to the connection of generation and demand-side-response assets.
- Preparation of the Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP), an essential tool for determining projects of mutual interest (PMI) and for developing cross-border infrastructures.
- Development of IT systems supporting the transparency and coordination of a secure operating system for European electricity networks.
- Development of an integrated R&D roadmap that guides TSO projects towards the targets set by the European Union. These projects seek to address the essential need for the reduction of greenhouse gases. They also include grid security, sound market practices and the integration of new energy sources.
Coreso: coordinating grid operations
On the 4th of November 2006, the failure of a high-voltage line in Germany plunged about 15 million households into the dark, both in Germany and across the continent’s synchronous regions, more specifically in France and Spain. In order to better prepare for the grid security analyses and prevent such incidents, RTE and its Belgian counterpart Elia decided to set up Coreso, a technical coordination centre, which was then joined by the British, German and Italian TSOs. CORESO now consists of 9 TSOs (RTE, ELIA, NGSO, EirGRID, Soni, 50hz, TERNA, REE, REN). Other regional coordination centres were established right across Europe, driven by the European network codes.
Its goal: Coordinated analysis of power flows across Central Western Europe. Every day, CORESO works closely together with its members and the other regional centres in order to maximise interconnection capacities at the borders and to produce reliable security analyses on cross-border effects between the different national grids. This need is even greater in a single market, where measures must be taken to ensure that exchanges remain compatible with system security.
The “Clean Energy for all Europeans” package has brought about changes to the regional cooperation centres’ model. Renamed “regional coordination centres”, these structures will now operate within geographic areas known as “system operation regions”, currently being determined in accordance with the “Clean Energy” package.
Any more partners?
600 million European citizens, more than 300 000 km of high and ultra-high voltage lines, annual consumption of around 3 300 TWH: the coordination work being performed within ENTSO-E is turning the integration of Europe’s electricity market into a reality.
43% of the EU’s population, 215 Europeans. That is the scope of action covered by the Coreso technical coordination centre that we have founded with 4 other European transmission system operators (Elia, National Grid, TERNA and 50 Hertz Transmission), which works around the clock, 7 days a week, in order to coordinate our security of supply.
