To meet EU energy and climate goals, major investments in the electricity transmission infrastructure are necessary. This investment challenge, however, is unprecedented in size and pace and means a significant financing challenge; moreover, the challenge is not limited to Projects of Common Interest (PCIs), as Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are required to deliver other significant and indispensable investments as part of the TYNDP and national development plans.

ENTSO-E’s policy paper and policy brief on fostering investments in the electricity transmission infrastructure aim to identify and explain in more detail the current financial issues faced by TSOs, as well as address the investment challenge by describing the key corporate financing concepts that affect the financeability issue encountered by TSOs. The current regulatory systems are too focused on short term cost efficiency, while there is an urgent need for the implementation of forward looking regulatory systems adapted to take account of the huge capital requirements and enable the delivery of anticipated investments.

A so-called “regret”-scenario is also presented, which outlines the likely consequences for society if regulatory systems do not adapt to the current challenges in a timely manner.

In this paper, ENTSO-E proposes a toolkit of possible regulatory instruments from which policy makers can select when creating the framework for TSOs willing to provide the required transmission infrastructure.

Read the full ENTSO-E papers: