Should The State Own Critical Infrastructure To Deliver The Energy Transition | Sonya Twohig

In this episode, Sonya Twohig, Director of Operations at ENTSO-e, joins Net Zero host Joana Freitas to discuss if the ownership of grid operators influences the delivery of the energy transition. Recently, some questions have been raised on which entities should own the grids. For example, in the UK, the Labour party announced a plan to take National Grid into public ownership (if it were elected Government). On the other hand, the Dutch Finance Minister has said he plans to privatize or sell off a stake in TenneT, as the company needs more equity to invest in grid upgrades. In Sony Twohig’s view, grid operators can work in a very positive way regardless their shareholder structure, as, in the end of the day, “what is really important is that the operation and the management of that grid is controlled and regulated by the regulatory authority that supports that grid”. Another issue that has been recently under discussion is the entry of relatively two new categories of shareholders: Pension Funds and State companies from countries outside the European Union. Regarding potential security concerns, Sony Twohig notes that those concerns exist “regardless of whether you have investors coming from outside EU jurisdictions or not” as some threats come from within the domestic country and are not specifically related with the investors’ profile. In countries where the TSO is fully private, as UK and Portugal, the issue of segregating the System Operator function has also been raised. Currently, given the integration of a large amount of renewables, the system operator and the network operator need to work in a much more integrated way. However, Sony Twohig considers that such integration “doesn’t mean that they have to be on the same business structure” and highlights the key role of regulators “to ensure that we do all work towards that one single driver [integration of renewables”.