The European Commission has opened this week the call for electricity projects to be submitted in the frame of the fourth list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI) of the European Union. A call for candidates to PCI in the priority corridors of gas transport, smart grids, cross-border carbon dioxide and oil networks will follow. All the information can be found in a website that is updated periodically.
Projects of Common Interest must be considered essential to complete EU’s internal energy market and to achieve the targets of the common energy policy. Therefore, in accordance with the Regulation on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructures (No. 347/2013), candidate projects in the field of electricity should be included in the Ten-Year Network Development Plans (TYNDP) developed by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO -MI).
The developers of the TYNPD projects interested in becoming a PCI can now send their request for transmission and storage projects through the online application platforms. TYNDP data will be retrieved directly from their TYNDP 2018 project sheet, so the process will be reduced, and it will only take 15 minutes for applicants to complete it. Applications are being accepted until November 15, 2018.
Being recognized as a PCI involves being able to benefit from accelerated planning and granting of permits, a single national authority to obtain them, better regulatory conditions, lower administrative costs due to simplified environmental assessment processes, greater public participation through consultations and greater visibility for the investors
Projects of Common Interest: steps following the application
The eligible projects will be assessed to identify if they meet a European need that can be better served through the infrastructure. Projects that pass this test will be assessed according to the criteria established in the TEN-E Regulation. The aim will be to determine their contribution to the implementation of the respective energy infrastructure priority corridor and their compliance. Projects that meet all the requirements of the Regulation and that make the largest contributions will be proposed for inclusion in the list of the Union of Projects of Common Interest. The list will be approved by the European Commission at the end of 2019 and will be published in the Official Gazette at the beginning of 2020.
Summary of the process:
Additional information: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/infrastructure/projects-common-interest
