Interconnected Europe
European countries are connected with one another for decades now and transmission system operators have been working in regions since the 1950s. Indeed, there is no way to stop electrons at the border. Managing one’s grid means coordinating actions with your neighbours.
Interconnections have been growing together with more variability of power flows. The regional coordination of transmission system operators has grown with the European energy transition. In the future, more coordination will take place notably to accompany the 4th industrial revolution around digitisation.
Hover over a name to see the connections.
The diagramme shows connections between ENTSO-E Members as of 30/08/2016 only.
History of regional cooperation
1950's - 2008
Former Associations
2008
First RSCs
2009
2015
Voluntary multilateral agreement on regional operational security coordination was signed with 36 interconnected TSOs and ENTSO-E.
Voluntary2016
Voluntary regional coordination becomes mandatory. Provision of the five services.
Mandatory- 4 May 2016
Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1485 of 2 August 2017 establishing a guideline on electricity transmission system operation system operation guideline. The guideline formalises the existence and role of the Regional Security Coordinators or RSCs.
- April 2016
ENTSO-E published a position paper on the creation of regional energy forums in Europe. TSOs are supporting closer cooperation at regional level and are calling for regioanl energy forums gathering ministries, regulators and technical/commercial competence. These need to be distinguished from RSCs which are functional areas set up by TSOs to optimise a function in power system operation, market or planning.
- 1 March 2016
ENTSO-E responded to a study carried out at the request of the European Commission "Options for the future Electricity System Operation". ENTSO-E explains why the RSCs are the best solution to increase operational security coordination in Europe.
- December 2015
A multilateral agreement on regional operational security coordination was signed with 36 interconnected TSOs and ENTSO-E to roll out the then called Regional Security Coordination Initiatives (RSCIs) in all Europe and to have them deliver five core services to support the national TSOs' decision-making.
- September 2015
- November 2014
ENTSO-E published its position paper on the future TSO coordination.
Meet The Regional Security Coordinators
Find out about the members of each RSC on their website.
Join our first regional electricity coordination conference in Munich.
The Roles
Find out who does what and when.
What’s the role of the TSO?
TSOs are responsible for security of supply in their area. In order to do this they plan decades ahead (the 10-year network development plan at national and European level) how the grid will need to evolve depending on the big trends in the power system (more decentralisation, more renewables, storage, greater role for markets…). 5 to 10 years in advance they assess whether the system is fit to cover demand always (system adequacy assessment at national but also European level (MAF)).
From a year in advance to real time, TSOs run a continuous series of calculations and adapt their assumptions constantly to new issues arising on their grid but also that of their neighbours – notably through RSCs but also through the European Awareness System.
The TSOs are taking decisions all the way through which all impact on what happens when the electricity is sent on the grid – dispatch or real time. If something happens that endangers security of supply, TSOs must react with seconds or even faster as electricity travels at the speed of light. TSOs’ ability to react very fast due to them being close to their grids (and the distribution level) is essential.
If despite their efforts, there is an incident, it is easy to trace back where the problem came from, fix it and give compensation to the affected grid users.
What services does an RSC offer?
RSCs intervene from one year ahead to one hour before dispatch. They run calculations and make recommendations that TSOs in the clear majority of cases follow but as situations can evolve very fast in a power system, TSOs can deviate from those recommendations to keep the lights on.
In the multilateral agreement that ENTSO-E members have all signed, RSCs must carry out five services.
- Security
analysis - Capacity
calculation - Outage
coordination - Adequacy
forecast - Common
grid model
RSCs are service providers to TSOs, with staff & budget coming from TSOs, which allows them to quickly develop new services as much as is needed to make grids more efficient.
RSCs must respond to regulators through the fact that they are service providers of nationally regulated TSOs. Since 2016, the System Operation Guideline and through ENTSO-E they must increase reporting on their work.
What’s the role of ENTSO-E?
Looking forward
Discover how ENTSO-E sees power regions developing into the future
Clean Energy Package
The European Commission through the Energy Union and the Clean Energy Package supports a greater role for regions. Through various position papers and studies as well as through the MLA and the System Operations Guideline, ENTSO-E has shown its support to giving more substance to the regional concept in the power sector. But transferring all decisions to regional operational centres is not something TSOs recommend.
Options for the future of power system regional coordination
ENTSO-E and TSOs understand more than anyone else the need to coordinate more om system operations. They ordered an independent consulting study form FTI Consulting which explains the different possible solutions taking the current legal and technical context into account. The study shows that the TSOs/RSCs/ENTSO-E model is sufficiently powerful and evolutive to respond to the need for more RES, more grid optimisation, transparency and market.