Going Green: Transmission Grids as Enablers of the Transition to a Low-Carbon European Economy

The transition to a low-carbon economy will create major challenges for the European energy sector in the 21st century. In this sector, electricity is a very important vector for allowing a lower consumption of fossil fuels while maintaining a competitive European economy. The European transmission grid and European transmission system operators (TSOs) are at the core of the complex European electrical system (see Figure 1). Aging infrastructure, low public acceptance of new overhead power lines, and long permitting processes only increase these challenges. All over Europe, the required investments are very significant, and R&D activities must be performed to allow an optimization of these investments. ENTSO-E, Europe's association of transmission system operators, has defined an R&D roadmap for tackling the most challenging issues. RTE, the French TSO, has participated in the definition of this roadmap and is a major contributor to ongoing European research projects.