Power Engineering - SE Europe grid reconnected

12 November 2004 - The Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE), the organization that co-ordinates the interests of transmission system operators in 22 European countries, has announced that, as of 1 November, south east Europe's power system has been reconnected to the rest of its system after a 13-year interval.

The resynchronization of the two UCTE zones has been a matter of highest priority to UCTE for many years after disconnection occurred resulting from the war events in ex-Yugoslavia. In a statement the UCTE said, "From Lisbon to Athens, to Sofia and Bucharest, the same UCTE frequency is now beating again in the heart of electrical Europe."

UCTE, the association that constitutes the only entity imposing the same rights and duties to all transmission system operators (TSOs) throughout the UCTE system in both EU and non-EU countries, managed to bring about that all TSOs of the former 2nd zone were involved in the work and in the decisions on all issues tackled by the association over more than a decade; it laid thus the basis for closing links again. However, it was not before the beginning of this decade that the concrete preparation of the process could be started.

Significant infrastructure reconstruction works were performed in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, as a solidbasis for carrying out the complex resynchronization procedure.
Several major goals have been achieved through this project. The reconnection was
the main prerequisite for the progressive integration of the South European electricity markets into the markets of the UCTE zone going beyond EU frontiers and, a basis for improving reliability conditions within the whole UCTE zone.

The reconnection process is a practical example of efficient co-operation and co-ordination of investment decisions among TSOs towards a common goal of the region and beyond. The substantial improvements of infrastructures realized in the region underpin the fact that the standards reached in South-East Europe in terms of grid infrastructure are comparable to those of the European Union, as this was also underlined at the 5th Athens Forum.

The reconnection will have a Europe-wide positive impact on the electricity sector as a whole as it physically integrates regional electricity markets in South-East Europe into the EU Internal Electricity Market.

Upon successful termination of a test phase from 10 October to 1 November 2004, market transactions are now possible across the resynchronization interface between Hungary and Romania, Hungary and Serbia, Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, West Ukraine and Romania.

To monitor the global system response to the new flow patterns, while bearing in mind the responsibility of each single TSO towards its customers, UCTE has issued recommendations to TSOs along the former interface between UCTE zones to gradually increase capacities for trading activities.

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