CurrENT’s position paper on the Grids Package: Delivering Europe’s Energy Transition
As Europe accelerates its energy transition, CurrENT has published a new position paper urging policymakers to ensure the upcoming Grids Package fully enables innovation in electricity networks.
With renewable deployment rapidly increasing and electrification expanding across sectors, electricity grids are becoming a decisive factor for Europe’s competitiveness and energy security. CurrENT welcomes the direction of the Grids Package but warns that, without stronger provisions for innovation, Europe risks locking itself into outdated and costly infrastructure pathways.
There is ample untapped potential of grid-enhancing technologies, including both wire and non-wire solutions, to deliver more capacity, faster, and at lower cost. However, current regulatory frameworks still tend to favour conventional grid expansion, limiting the uptake of these innovative solutions.
To address this, CurrENT sets out key recommendations to strengthen the Grids Package:
- Improve the definitions of non-wire solutions to include all innovative grid solutions.
- Mandate innovation integration in the TEN-E framework.
- Always consider best available technologies in grid development.
- Integrate electricity network losses into the TEN-E methodology.
- Accelerate monitoring to keep grid development future-proof.
By placing innovation at the core of grid planning and regulation, Europe can build a more resilient, cost-efficient, and future-proof electricity system. This will be essential not only to integrate growing volumes of renewable energy, but also to reduce system costs and strengthen Europe’s industrial competitiveness in the years ahead.
