IceLink offers high increase in social and economic welfare

The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E)  has submitted the final draft of the community-wide Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP) to the Agency for the Cooperation of the Energy Regulators; ACER. Following reception of the ACER opinion, the final TYNDP 2014 will be published by end of December 2014.

The TYNDP 2014 explores the evolution of the electricity system until 2030 in order to identify potential system development issues and to be able to address these proactively. The objectives of the TYNDP are to ensure transparency regarding the electricity transmission network and to support decision-making processes at the regional and European level.

IceLink would result in highly increased social and economic welfare

The report from ENTSO-E includes analysis and evaluation of numerous possibilities for new electric cables interconnecting different electricity markets in Europe. One of the possible cables is a submarine HVDC cable (High Voltage Direct Current) between Iceland and the United Kingdom (UK); sometimes referred to as IceLink. The cable is expected to have a capacity somewhere between 800-1,200 MW, and be close to 1,000 km long.

According to ENTSO-E the IceLink could offer an increase in social economic welfare of up to 470 million EUR annually. This is higher SEW than most other of the interconnectors evaluated by ENTSOE-E in the new report. The social and economic welfare (SEW) is characterized by the ability of a power system to reduce congestion and thus provide an adequate transmission capacity so that electricity markets can trade power in an economically efficient manner. In addition, the IceLink offers much more flexibility or steerability than for example the numerous large scale wind power projects, evaluated in the report.

ENTSO-E presents four different scenarios

The 2014 version of the TYNDP covers four scenarios, known as the 2030 Visions. The visions were developed by ENTSO-E in collaboration with stakeholders through the Long-Term Network Development Stakeholder Group, multiple workshops and public consultations. The four visions are contrasted in order to cover every possible development foreseen by stakeholders. The visions are less forecasts of the future than selected possible extremes of the future so that the pathway realized in the future falls with a high level of certainty in the range described by the visions. The span of the four visions is large and meets the various expectations of stakeholders. The four visions for IceLink have a span of 290-470 million EUR annually in increased social and economic welfare.

Top-down, open and constantly improving process

The first Ten-Year Network Development Plan was published by ENTSO-E on a voluntary basis in 2010. The 2012 release built on this experience and the feedback received from stakeholders, proposing the first draft of a systematic cost benefit analysis. In the last two years, ENTSO-E has organized exchanges with stakeholders to ensure transparency as much as possible.

For the 2014 release, ENTSO-E launched a large project, where the expertise of the members of ENTSO-E; the Transmission System Operators (TSO’s). This included the Icelandic TSO; Landsnet. Having regard to the high SEW of IceLink and its highly flexible power production, it can be expected that the project will attract strong political interest and positive financing.