Les renouvelables, un moteur de l’intégration du marché[en][de] 

A binding target to satisfy 20% of EU's energy consumption from renewable energies as set out in the new Renewables Directive is already very challenging for the electricity industry, which will have to produce 35% of total electricity from renewables, an increase of 15%, Joseffsson argued.

He added, however, that the directive poses another challenge by encouraging the persistence of 27 different national renewables support policies at a time when EU lawmakers have agreed to speed up the development of a European internal electricity market (see EurActiv LinksDossier on 'EU electricity market liberalisation'). 

"Well over a third of all European electricity may be carved out of the market and cordoned off in a separate non-market enclosure," Josefsson argued. 

According to Eurelectric figures, member states could bring down the costs of supporting renewable power by €17 billion annually by 2020 by allowing cross-border trading in renewables. Josefsson therefore urged member states to make full use of joint support systems and renewables projects and other flexibility mechanisms in the directive, saying these would have "the extremely positive effect of encouraging regional market integration". 

"In addition, managing the system integration of intermittent RES-electricity will necessitate greater regional market integration. Intermittency can be managed somewhat through greater cross-border flows," Josefsson said.

The development of smart grid systems will be crucial to enable the integration of the large amounts of renewable energy to the market.

"Today's electricity grid was designed to ensure power flow from centralised sources to fixed, predictable loads. This grid topology and operational logic makes it impossible for the grid to accept massive input from myriad distributed energy resources," Josefsson pointed out.

Moreover, bi-directional power flow as well as better monitoring and control of decentralised power sources is required to manage differing energy flows and plan for standby capacity when power generation from wind and solar is weak, Josefsson said.

"It is smart grid development that will facilitate market-integration rather than the other way around," Josefsson said. Although the power to drive forward smart grids lies mainly in the hands of national regulators, the industry would like to see a harmonised, EU-wide approach, which is emerging to an extent with the third electricity market directive, he stated.

Josefsson argued that markets alone cannot pay back the smart grid investment, and "smarter regulation" and R&D incentives will be necessary too.

The current support schemes, including feed-in tariffs and quota-based systems, are already boosting the uptake of renewables but will fall short of achieving the EU's 2020 target, Josefsson said. He argued that simply upgrading the existing schemes would lead to significant hikes in energy prices.

"Trading in RES power between member states would reduce these costs by incentivising construction in least-cost locations," Josefsson said. This would depend on political backing, he added, urging the Commission to use the revision of the Renewables Directive in 2014 to move towards full trading in renewable energy and improved opportunities for national cooperation.

Moreover, the electricity industry is calling on the EU to be "hard and fast" on the implementation of the bloc's revised emissions trading scheme (EU ETS; see EurActiv LinksDossier) in order to avoid exemptions from full auctioning of permits as far as possible. From 2013 on, full auctioning will be the rule for power generation, although many utilities in new member states will continue to get allowances for free from the new entrants' reserve.

"Indeed, we would argue that in the long term, the carbon price itself should provide a sufficient economic signal to deploy RES without additional subsidy schemes," Josefsson said.

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