By Julia Payne and Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS/STRASBOURG (Reuters) -The European Union will prioritise fixing eight power grid bottlenecks, the Commission President said on Wednesday, in an effort to lower the bloc’s uncompetitive energy prices and improve energy security.
“I am presenting today a new initiative called Energy Highways. We have identified eight critical bottlenecks in our energy infrastructure. From the Oresund Strait to the Sicilian Canal,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the Union address in Strasbourg.
“We will now work to remove these bottlenecks one by one.”
Electrification is essential to the bloc’s climate ambitions but there remain stark price and connection gaps across the 27 member states.
Earlier this year, Spain and Portugal suffered country-wide blackouts while southeastern Europe, especially Greece, saw power prices skyrocket above the EU average.
“If our energy systems are not better connected, then we will not decrease the (energy) prices as much as we should,” EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen told reporters in Strasbourg.
A key project will be to increase electricity interconnections between the Iberian peninsula and France. Spain and Portugal asked the Commission to intervene in May.
“We saw the blackout, we cannot conclude yet exactly why that happened, but it’s clear to every expert that the more connected you are, the better connected you are, the less the risk of blackouts like that,” Jorgensen said.
“It will be a main priority for us to make it happen to make it happen. And I’m confident that France will also see the value.”
Here is the list of the priority bottlenecks:
1. Better integrate Iberia with power interconnectors across the Pyrenees to France
2. Connect Cyprus with continental Europe to end its electricity isolation
3. Strengthen power links in the Baltic states
4. Improve energy supplies in the Balkan region and eastern neighbouring states
5. Turn the North Sea into an offshore interconnector hub
6. South hydrogen corridor connecting the North Sea to the Mediterranean
7. Southwest hydrogen corridor from Portugal to Germany
8. Improve price stability and energy security in southeastern Europe
(Reporting by Julia PayneEditing by Ros Russell)
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