Staschus presented ENTSO-E's draft Ten Year Network Development Plan, stressing that it is the first Europe-wide exercise of its kind.
"What we had before were national and regional plans but no EU-wide overview. You could call this transparency of transmission infrastructure planning," he said.
He added that although the plan is non-binding, it could become "a feedback loop" between transmission system operators (TSOs), investors and policymakers to guarantee that networks are part of the equation when new electricity generation is decided upon.
The networks chief expressed hope that the plan would influence the European Commission's broader energy infrastructure package, including new guidelines for Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E), which are due to be presented towards the end of the year.
Staschus identified three key drivers of new electricity infrastructure that correspond to Europe's long-term energy goals.
Market integration will drive development of new lines or reinforcements to alleviate congestion and boost the internal market, Staschus argued. Other construction plans will be influenced by concerns over security of supply, ensuring that increased loads and generation shifts do not compromise the secure operation of networks, he added.
Finally, the integration of renewable energies into the grid will be necessary to meet the EU's goal of producing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, he said.
"This implies, for example, not only putting cables into the North Sea to bring offshore wind energy to shore but also lines to transport that electricity into the countries, to the load centres," Staschus argued.
Total infrastructure needs will amount to some 35,000 kilometres of new transmission lines and upgrades of 7,000 kilometres of existing lines across 34 European countries, the draft plan shows.
"Those 42,000 compared to [the existing] 300, 000 km are not much if you look at the key role that transmission has for our 2020 goals of bringing renewable energy to the customer and integrating the European market with fewer and fewer bottlenecks," Staschus insisted.
The plan would require European transmission system operators (TSOs) to fork out between 23 and 28 billion euros by 2015, Staschus said. Costs for the five years after that are more difficult to estimate, he added.
According to Staschus, the greatest challenge is the permitting process, as most electricity infrastructure projects require at least four to six years to acquire all the necessary national and regional authorisation.
"In cases of controversy due to local opposition to the construction of overhead transmission lines, it may take ten or twelve years before the line can enter into operation and in some extreme cases the thirty years we have unfortunately had to observe," he regretted.
Staschus warned that this could in turn delay the EU's renewable goals for 2020.
Renewables at the core
Staschus pointed out that one of the surprising aspects of the plan is the high number of direct current (DC) lines that will need to be built in the next decade.
"The explanation rests, I believe, with offshore subsea lines," he said. "The North Sea offshore grid, for instance, is within the 2020 horizon – not for each and every piece of a real grid, but for quite a few pieces."
Some undersea cables are also planned in the Mediterranean, the ENTSO-E chief added.
"We can observe already in the planning for 2020 the beginning of something like a grid connecting the different parts of the Mediterranean," he said.
While a Mediterranean supergrid bringing solar energy from North Africa to Europe is not on the cards before 2020, the network development plan already includes a DC line between Sicily and Tunisia that will later be used to tap into the solar potential of Africa.
