Europe is installing new renewable energy capacity, but risks being unable to use the cheap electricity it produces unless it addresses problems in its grids. “We fall into a trap,” MEP Tsvetelina Penkova warned in a Power Talks interview with NewsEnergy at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Bottlenecks that restrict electricity flows between countries contribute to the large price gap between northern and south-eastern Europe and put industry in Romania and Bulgaria at a disadvantage.
Tsvetelina Penkova is Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and Parliament’s rapporteur on the revision of the Trans-European Networks for Energy Regulation (TEN-E), part of the Grids Package.
In her view, investment in new generation capacity must be matched by investment in grids.
“We fall into the trap that when we have that renewable energy installed, which is the cheap energy that everyone wants to have, if we don’t ensure that there is an infrastructure to move that energy, to connect it, as the President of the Commission said, it is useless,” Penkova explained in this special edition of Power Talks.
She believes the revision of the rules governing trans-European energy infrastructure is essential to speeding up investment in the grids needed to transport that electricity.
“At the moment, it’s not simply enough to produce it. It has to reach consumers. It has to reach production facilities. Otherwise, we’re just producing energy that goes to waste,” the ITRE Vice-Chair said.
Bottlenecks affecting South-Eastern Europe
Interviu cu MEP Tsvetelina Penkova la Strasbourg – Power Talks
Penkova pointed to congestion around Austria and Hungary as one of the factors restricting electricity flows towards South-Eastern Europe. According to her, the resulting price differences affect both electricity bills and companies’ investment decisions.
“In northern parts of the EU, electricity prices are, on an annual basis, far lower — five to ten times lower than in the region of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. This creates a massive discrepancy and puts our industry in a very uncompetitive position. If a factory in Sweden pays five times less for electricity, why would an investor choose Romania or Bulgaria?” Penkova asked, illustrating the effect of energy prices on competitiveness.
One of the changes supported in the European Parliament is to plan infrastructure more clearly around the needs of the EU as a whole. Penkova argues that national and regional projects must be coordinated with efforts to remove major cross-border bottlenecks, so that new generation capacity and modernised grids can work together.
“If we want to have a properly functioning energy union, we first have to address those bottlenecks that are isolating us,” Penkova said.
Another proposal concerns revenues generated by grid congestion. According to the MEP, Parliament’s position calls for 30% of unused congestion revenues to be invested in resolving the problems that generate them. The aim, she said, is to break “a vicious cycle” in which bottlenecks produce revenue but remain unresolved.
When could the changes deliver results?
Interviu cu MEP Tsvetelina Penkova la Strasbourg – Power Talks
Penkova hopes negotiations between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the TEN-E revision will conclude by the end of November 2026. If the regulation is adopted, implementation could begin in 2027, depending on Member States’ technical capacity. Under the scenario she outlined, infrastructure works could start in 2028.
Funding will become available under the EU’s next long-term budget, which Penkova said will allocate substantial resources to grid investment.
“I know this may sound too far away, because we are expecting a winter with a significant negative impact on energy and electricity prices. But we should not be thinking only in the short term. I’m sure there will be measures to address the immediate challenges, but we should not underestimate the importance of this: if it had been done ten years ago, we would not be having this conversation now,” Penkova said.
Asked what could help the region sooner, Penkova pointed to the development of energy storage capacity. She said storage installed in Bulgaria had helped lower prices across the region this summer.
“I think Bulgaria and Greece could be used as a case study. Because of the high level of storage capacity installed in Bulgaria, we managed to lower prices for the whole region this summer. This is unprecedented — we probably haven’t seen prices this low for a decade. Spain and Portugal still have the lowest prices, but ours was the region with the second-lowest,” the MEP added.
For a stable and affordable energy system, her conclusion is that renewable and nuclear generation, storage and interconnections must be developed together.
Watch the full interview with Tsvetelina Penkova in NewsEnergy’s special Power Talks edition from Strasbourg:
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