Powering Europe - European Wind Energy Association

The studies either allocate the total extra cost or part
of it to wind power. When they only allocate part of it, it
is because most grid reinforcements and new transmission
lines benefit all consumers and power producers,
and thus can be used for many purposes, such as increased
reliability and/or increased trading.
Grid reinforcements should be compared to the possibility
of controlling wind output or altering the way other
types of generation are operated. The latter might make
better economic sense, for example in cases where grid
adequacy is insufficient during only part of the time because
of specific production and load situations.
Finally, when considerable grid reinforcements are necessary,
the most cost effective solution for transmission
planning would be to plan and expand the transmission
network for the final amount of wind power in the system
rather than planning one phase of wind power growth at
a time.
The national transmission upgrade cost figures tend
to exclude the costs for improving interconnection between
the Member States. These interconnection costs
have been investigated in European studies, such as
TradeWind and EWIS, as mentioned previously with scenarios
up to 2030.
tablE 3: GRiD UPGRaDE Costs fRoM sElECtED national
systEM stUDiEs [holttinEn, 2009]
Country
Grid
upgrade
costs
installed
wind power
capacity
€/kw Gw
Portugal 53 – 100 5.1
The Netherlands 60 – 110 6.0
United Kingdom 45 – 100 8.0
United Kingdom 85 – 162 26.0
chApTEr 4 Upgradingelectricitynetworks–challengesandsolutions
Remarks
Only additional costs
for wind power
Specifically offshore
wind
20% wind power
penetration
Germany 100 36.0 Dena 1 study
Ireland 154 6.6
Denmark 270 3
Cost is for all renewables,
wind is 90%.
The cost adds 1-2%
to electricity price.
Assuming that 40%
of upgrade cost is
attributed to wind.
EWIS calculated the costs of the network developments
currently planned in order to accommodate the additional
wind power between 2008 and 2015. It found they
range from €25/kW for immediate measures to €121/
kW wind for measures that will accommodate the ‘Optimistic’
scenario in the short and longer term. The €121/
kW figure represents around €4/MWh, which is similar
to the additional operational costs for addressing the
added variability by wind power and is a small proportion
of the overall benefits of wind generation. The EWIS values
are well in the range of the findings of the studies
listed in Table 3.
5.2 Allocating grid infrastructure
costs
There is no doubt that transmission and distribution infrastructure
will have to be extended and reinforced in
most of the EU countries when large amounts of wind
power are connected. It is also clear that a far better
interconnected power system is needed in Europe, if we
are ever to achieve a well-functioning single market for
electricity and real competition, to the benefit of consumers.
However, these adaptations are needed not only to
accommodate wind power, but also to connect other
sources to meet the rapidly growing European electricity
demand and trade flows. The need to extend and reinforce
the existing grid infrastructure is critical. Changes
in generation and load at one point in the grid can cause
changes throughout the system, which may lead to power
congestion. It is not possible to identify one (new)
point of generation as the single cause of such difficulties,
other than it being ‘the straw that broke the camel’s
back’. Therefore, the allocation of costs necessary to accommodate
a single new generation plant to that plant
only (for example, a new wind farm) should be avoided.
Also, the discussion on financing new interconnectors
should be placed in the broader context of the development
of an internal electricity market, thereby not relating
the benefits of grid development to individual projects or
technologies. Infrastructure projects are natural monopolies
and should be treated as such. Grid development
benefits all producers and consumers and, consequently,
its costs and benefits should be socialised.
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