In a paper for the Robert Schuman Foundation, André Merlin reflects on the sequence of events that briefly left some 10 million people across Western Europe without electricity on 4 November (EurActiv 6/11/06).
To begin with, Merlin rules out a supply/demand problem: electricity supply on that night was "largely sufficient" to meet demand, he writes. Rather, he suggests that "an error of judgement" in the way German power utility E.ON shut off a high-voltage transmission line "apparently sooner than expected" is more likely to be the cause of the incident. The exercise that had been previously rehearsed with grid operators in neighbouring countries and was therefore "trivial", Merlin says.
Solidarity between European grid operators avoided a total blackout, Merlin points out, but he argues that the incident has highlighted the need for priority action to be taken at European level:
- The creation of a European co-ordination centre for electricity networks to take account of "the intermittency of new production means such as wind power";
- competences of national regulatory authorities need to be harmonised so that they are enabled to make the same type of decisions. The wide disparities that still exist should be ironed out to ensure the smooth functioning of the European electricity market;
- the establishment of supply/demand prevision at national and European level;
- creating a formal group of distribution operators at European level, and;
- allowing shorter timeframes to adapt infrastructure to today's needs where decentralised power generation and renewable energies play an increasing role.
