Large Scale Integration of Wind Energy EWEA Policy conference, 7 - 8 November 2006, Brussels

The European Commission has put the issue of electricity interconnection among its priorities and has recently announced the development of a Priority Interconnection Plan.

A well interconnected system is a precondition for real competition in the electricity market. Improved interconnection will also ease integration of wind power because it smoothes out fluctuations, increases predictability and capacity credit. You can learn more about electricity interconnection and the large scale integration of wind energy by taking part in the upcoming EWEA policy conference, taking place in Brussels on 7 - 8 November.

The Energy Green Paper published earlier this year says that "improving interconnection is one of the priorities to be addressed in order to complete the internal electricity market (…) private and public investments in infrastructure need to be stimulated and authorisation procedures accelerated. The greater the interconnection in the European electricity grid, the lower the need for spare capacity and, in time, the lower the costs. This is important at a time when Europe's previous overcapacity is becoming history."

Last week Energy Commissioner Piebalgs repeated his wish to prioritise this issue: "Of the infrastructure priorities, possibly the most important issue concerns electricity interconnectors. The EU electricity grid was designed as 25 separate markets, with limited and controlled imports and exports. Capacity is presently congested on many EU borders, placing a major constraint on the development of effective cross-border competition. This in turn means that, for an economic point of view, markets still remain almost universally national in scope (…). And this is not the goal that the EU has set itself."

Register online today to take part in the discussions and meet the relevant stakeholders from industry, TSOs, regulators and institutions.

Sponsors :
"The large scale grid integration of onshore and offshore wind energy will facilitate the use of this vast resource of secure, clean and competitive energy. Wind is a European Continental resource. The large integrated grids needed to exploit this resource create new international pathways for electricity trading. A new single Europe electricity market benefits every customer in the EU. The wind/grid combination called the delivers on the founding vision for the EU of an interdependent set of nations bound together with the strongest trading arrangements. Airtricity is proud to sponsor this EWEA policy conference, facilitating the exchange of information between senior decision makers from all relevant sectors on these crucial issues."

Eddie O'Connor, Chief Executive Officer, Airtricity

"Wind parks around the world use ABB products like generators, motors,transformers and low- and medium-voltage equipment to create power, as well as state of the art technology and proven systems to link them to local power grids. Working in the wind power industry also encapsulates ABB's triple bottom line approach to business: such projects lead to clear economic, environmental and societal benefits. We believe these are excellent reasons to support this EWEA policy conference on the Large Scale Integration of Wind Energy"

Georg Brodach, Senior Vice President, ABB Europe

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