Ten-Year Network Development Plan
A central role in the development of electricity transmission infrastructure in Europe
Every two years, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) adopts a non-binding Union-wide ten-year network development plan (TYNDP), including a European generation adequacy outlook.
The TYNDP plays a central role in the development of electricity transmission infrastructure in Europe, which is needed for achieving the European policy goals.
The main objectives of the TYNDP are:
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to identify investment gaps, including cross border capacities
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to contribute to a sufficient level of cross-border interconnection and non-discrimination, effective competition and the efficient functioning of the market
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to ensure a greater transparency of the European electricity transmission network.
The TYNDP prepared by ENTSO-E builds on national investment plans prepared by the transmission system operators (TSOs) and takes into account the regional investment plans, published every two years.
Ten-Year Network Development Plan
What's the role of ACER?
ACER is responsible for:
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Providing an opinion on the contribution of the TYNDP to ENTSO-E, the European Parliament, Council and Commission, whenever ACER considers this draft is not contributing to the market's transparency and effective competition.
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Assessing the consistency between the European TYNDP and the national plans. If inconsistencies are found, ACER recommends amending the national plan or the TYND.
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Monitoring the implementation of the TYNDP, after its positive evaluation. If ACER identifies inconsistencies, it investigates the reasons and makes recommendations to TSOs, NRAs and other competent bodies, in order to contribute to the investments' implementation.
Ten-Year Network Development Plan
What does ACER say?
In its latest Opinions (April 2023), ACER acknowledges the difficulties arising from the TYNDP process and welcomes a number of improvements in the draft 2022 electricity TYNDP.
However, significant steps forward are still needed, and for this purpose ACER recommends ENTSO-E to:
- Make all relevant inputs accessible in a clear and straightforward format as part of the 2022 final electricity TYNDP publication.
- Provide transparency on how the investment costs for the needs identification were derived by distinguishing between internal reinforcements and overall project costs.
- Publish for each cross-zonal boundary and each flow direction the transfer capacities of the current grid, starting grid (for the purpose of needs identification) and of the reference grid for 2030 and for 2040.
- Use the 10,000 EUR/MWh Value of Lost Load (VoLL) where no specific data is available.
- Explain how an assessment of resilience, if any, was carried out in the 2022 final electricity TYNDP (potentially including improvements for future TYNDPs).
- Review and eliminate the project-specific inconsistencies reported in ACER Opinion on electricity projects and consider the differences identified by national regulators between the NDPs and the 2022 draft electricity TYNDP.
Also, specific recommendations to ENTSO-E on a substantial improvement of future TYNDPs are provided, inter alia:
- Restructure the TYNDP development process in order to complete it by December of the TYNDP year (considering also ACER’s opinion).
- Conduct a substantial consultation of the important methodological elements and parameters considered in the various deliverables of the TYNDP early enough in the process to have the capability to consider stakeholders’ comments.
- Calculate the benefits of projects according to all the joint scenarios developed by ENTSOs, and for all relevant time horizons to ensure adequate consideration of uncertainty.
- Base the modelling of the grid on an appropriate starting grid (for the needs exercise) and reference grids (for the CBA assessments) by including only the projects which strictly comply with the rules set in the respective implementation guidelines.
- Calculate the additional transfer capabilities of each project (and not leave this task to the promoters themselves), perform the calculations with more granularity (e.g. calculate at least seasonal NTCs) and improve their transparency.
- Consider the impact of the 70% interconnection capacity availability targets where relevant in the modelling of the power system for the development of the TYNDP.
- Enhance the consistency between the NDPs and the EU TYNDP by implementing the measures recommended in the ACER Opinion on electricity projects.