PRIORITIZATION OF REGIONAL TRANSMISSION NETWORK PROJECTS TO SUSTAIN GENERATION AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH EAST EUROPE

Abstract

The region of South East Europe (SEE) has been experiencing an ongoing process of changes in the energy sector in the areas of power generation, power transmission and power distribution. These changes are reflected in each country through reorganization of vertically integrated electric power utilities, followed by functional separation of transmission from generation and distribution. Changes in the energy sector have also affected the philosophy of generation and transmission planning since most of the SEE countries are transition countries. In order to establish and harmonize the common regional and the wider European electricity market, many study activities have been undertaken in the last few years. This paper deals with the interaction between the most important regional generation and transmission studies that were presented and discussed at different occasions at the regional level (Athens Fora, conferences, workshops, web sites etc.). The main aim of the studies was to assist the European Commission (EC), the World Bank (WB) and the donors in identifying the indicative priority list of investments in power generation and related electricity infrastructure from the regional perspective and in line with the objectives of SEE regional electricity market. The scope of work within this study was to analyze the transmission network for investigated scenarios and in accordance with the findings and conclusions from the updated GIS. The final result is supposed to be a list of new interconnection line priorities in the region necessary for new generation and future market sustainability.