Assessing the impact of electricity interconnections to achieve the EU targets for CO2 emissions reduction

The low interconnection capacities between EU countries has been identified as one of the main issues with the development of an electricity system relying mainly on renewable energy sources. This research work explores the impacts of investing in new interconnection capacity through the application of a TIMES model of Europe considering 18 regions. The modeling approach considers a temporal resolution able to account for the electricity supply and demand dynamics, which exist within and across the different regions. Four different scenarios of increasing interconnection capacities were considered. The results show that high interconnection capacities enable the European countries to better utilize their potential for onshore wind energy, which is cheaper than wind offshore and solar energy. Reductions of up to 10% on the investment in new generation capacity, fixed costs and operation costs, can be achieved, when compared to a business as usual scenario.