Grids Policy Package: Ember’s input to the Commission Call for Evidence
Ember’s response to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence on the European Grid Package
Summary
Background
The European Grids Package was announced as part of the Competitiveness Compass for the EU and the Clean Industrial Deal. It aims to modernise Europe’s energy infrastructure to support renewables, electrification, and industrial transformation. Its aims include streamlining planning and permitting, strengthening cross-border and distribution-level coordination, and promoting the efficient use of existing infrastructure through digitalisation and innovation. The package also seeks to align grid development with EU climate goals, improve cost-sharing mechanisms, enhance infrastructure resilience, and support the rollout of hydrogen and CO₂ networks.
Ember’s full response can be downloaded here, and the key messages are summarised below.
- Recognise grids as strategic infrastructure for economic growth and competitiveness
- Establish a one-stop shop for grid financing that consolidates multiple EU funding streams and simplifies access to financing for grid infrastructure projects.
- A new planning approach, firmly anchored in EU legislation, that reflects the following principles:
- Transition to independent and integrated planning
- Harmonise energy system planning processes for coordination, consistency and reduce administrative burdens
- Extend the minimum planning horizon for national grid development plans to at least 20 years to enable anticipatory investments
- National Regulatory Authorities to have a mandate to deliver on energy and climate objectives
- Better utilisation of existing infrastructure through deployment of flexibility and grid enhancing technologies by adopting a TOTEX-based regulatory approach
- Strengthen TSO–DSO collaboration through data standards and visibility of distributed assets
- Improve the EU’s cost-benefit cost allocation (CBCA) framework for cross-border infrastructure by advancing the CBCA decision in project timelines and broadening the scope, amongst others
- Require system operators to publish grid-related data in a standardised, accessible and transparent format to monitor progress and unlock opportunities
- Promote the use of open-source modelling tools to support transparency, enable harmonisation across planning processes, and facilitate TSO-DSO coordination
Supporting materials
Downloads
Download Ember’s full response