Workshop

The Revision of the TEN-E Regulation

12 March 2021

FSR Policy Workshop in collaboration with the Copenhagen School of Energy Infrastructure

On 15 December 2020, the Commission published its legislative proposal for the revision of Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure (the TEN-E Regulation)[1]. The 2013 TEN-E Regulation aimed at accelerating the development of strategically important priority projects interconnecting energy networks along eight priority corridors and in the area of smart grids, against the demanding timeline of the EU 2020 energy and climate objectives. These projects are labelled Projects of Common Interest (PCIs). To achieve the PCI status, projects need to be included in the latest Ten-Year Network Development Plan (TYNDP) and, as such, they need to deliver positive net welfare benefits. Since the entry into force of the TEN-E Regulation, the European Commission has adopted four PCI lists; the last one was published on 31 October 2019[2].

The European Green Deal[3] requires a revision of the TEN-Regulation, which was already planned on the basis of the experience gained over the seven years of its implementation. However, the European Green Deal makes this revision more wide-reaching, also involving a redefinition of the objectives of the TEN-E Regulation, to align it to the new context and thus ensure that the development of energy networks enables and supports decarbonisation, by fostering the deployment of innovative technologies and infrastructure, while keeping the energy transition socially fair.

In this respect the Commission’s legislative proposal, while maintaining the main tenets of the TEN-E Regulation – e.g. the PCI status for priority projects, the possibility of an enabling Cross-Border Cost Allocation for PCIs – envisages changes in some important features of the Regulation, such as the exclusion of oil and gas network infrastructure from the projects eligible for the PCI status, the inclusion of hydrogen and smart gas grid projects, albeit subject to meeting a mandatory sustainability criterion, the requirement that total investment costs be allocated through the cross-border cost allocation and several improvements in the governance of various aspects of the TYNDP/PCI selection process.

Over the last year, the Florence School of Regulation has been working with the Copenhagen School of Energy Infrastructure to assess the experience with the implementation of the TEN-E Regulation and to identify those changes in the Regulation required better to support the new EU energy and climate goals of the Green Deal. The preliminary results of this assessment were contributed to one of the webinars organised by the European Commission as part of its consultation process, further discussed in an online roundtable on 23 June 2020 – Revision of the TEN-E regulation: an academic perspective (eui.eu) – and presented in a Policy Brief – “Making the TEN-E Regulation Compatible with the Green Deal: Eligibility, Selection, and Cost Allocation for PCIs”.

The Workshop will aim at discussing the changes to the TEN-E Regulation proposed by the European Commission and assess how they fare vis-à-vis the new challenges faced by the energy sector and the corresponding needs for infrastructure development.

To explore these issues, after an introductory presentation by the Commission of its legislative proposal, the Workshop will be structured in two sessions:

Session I will focus on those aspects related to the identification of the scenarios supporting the development of the TYNDP, the CBA methodologies and the PCI selection process;
Session II will review the experience with CBCA decisions to put into context and assess the changes proposed by the Commission in this area.