Dutch-German transmission system operator TenneT plans to spend €28 billion ($34 billion) over the next decade to keep pace with the growth of renewables.
In its 2017 annual report, the company said it will significantly expand cross-border interconnectors between the Netherlands, Germany and other countries to add flexibility to Europe’s electricity system.
“This will also have positive effects on price harmonization, the exchange of renewable electricity, and the security of supply in the countries involved,” said the firm.
The company spent €1.77 billion ($2.2 billion) on infrastructure in 2017, of which €736 million ($906 million) was invested in the Netherlands and €1.03 billion ($1.27 billion) in Germany.
In the Netherlands, the planned investments focus on grid expansion and upgrades of existing infrastructure, with the main projects including, among others, the offshore grid, the Doetinchem, Netherlands-Wesel, Germany interconnector, and the COBRAcable between the Netherlands and Denmark.
In Germany, where TenneT owns 40 percent of high-voltage grids and spends the bigger part of investments, the firm expects to complete two new offshore grid connections to wind farms in the North Sea in 2019.
Recently, TenneT announced plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm by 2027, along with a 2.3-square-mile artificial island to support it. And it is constructing two new offshore interconnectors, the NordLink subsea cable between Germany and Norway, to be ready in 2020, and the COBRAcable between the Netherlands and Denmark, to be ready in 2019.
