Siem Bruijns on European cooperation

"The developments are fast and furious"

The energy market is becoming increasingly pan-European. We are on the threshold of far-reaching market integration, with ever more international cooperation between the grid managers. Siem Bruijns is TenneT's System Operations Manager. "Cooperation is now the rule rather than the exception," he remarks.

Everything becomes fluid under pressure, a rule which applies equally to the developing European energy market. Pressure from the European authorities has accelerated the integration process, according to Siem Bruijns. "But a number of European TSOs, including TenneT, have realized for themselves the importance of pursuing a resilient single European market. It is now inevitable." Bruijns sees the agreement for Central Western Europe (CWE region) as a true breakthrough. "In 2007, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany agreed on far-reaching market integration by means of implicit auctions. The relevant TSOs, energy exchanges, governments and regulatory bodies are now working out the details. If everything goes to plan, the auction systems in these five member states will be ready to accommodate yet more mutual energy trading by 2010. Further physical links with the Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom are likely to follow."

However, even this integration does not render the market 'perfect'. To ensure an effective pricing mechanism, even more electricity must flow between the member states, and this requires further expansion of the interconnection capacity. "TenneT has already begun the process of laying new cables to the United Kingdom (the 'BritNed' connection) and Germany (Doetinchem-Wesel), and is currently examining the feasibility of further international connections. Our aim is to offer the market maximum capacity without putting the security of supply at risk."

And that brings us neatly to the thorny question of 'reliability'. As Bruijns points out, the increase in European trade will lead to more 'transmission fluctuations'. "It will be rather more difficult to predict the stability of a pan-European electricity grid. Moreover, we can expect a substantial increase in the proportion of energy derived from wind power, so output will also become less predictable." This is clearly a problem, but it is not insurmountable. Once again the answer is European cooperation. In 2008, TenneT and its German counterpart RWE Transportnetz Strom established a joint Security Service Centre in Rommerskirchen in Germany. At this location, the first of its kind, specialists from both companies closely monitor the grid and forecast the supply and demand requirements for the following day. Bruijns foresees a situation in which European TSOs can no longer operate as independent 'islands'. He welcomes the initiative of setting up a joint IT platform together with eleven other TSOs, a move which he thinks will soon be emulated throughout Europe. Closer cooperation can be seen in many other areas. Recently, the various European TSOs joined forces in the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E). "Cooperation is now very much the rule rather than the exception," Bruijns states.