Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO), that is an organization recently promoted by SGCC, organized on 18 and 19 September in Beijing the Seminar e-Highway 2050 dedicated to the European project completed in 2015 under the European funding program FP7. With this purpose, R&D Nester was invited to meet a group of experts in this event in order to discuss the project.

Rui Pestana, Project Leader in the Research and Development Center R&D Nester, created by REN and the State Grid Corporation of China, and project coordinator for REN's participation in this e-Highway 2050 Project, gathered at this meeting the European project coordinator and 3 more experts to present the results in China.

The European delegation was composed of the following elements involved in the project between 2012 and 2015:

• Gérald Sanchis, Project Coordinator, representing RTE
• Dragana Orlic, WP2, representing EKC
• Eric Peirano, WP3 Leader, representing Technofi
• Rui Pestana, WP4 Leader, representing REN
• Bernard De Clercq, WP5 Leader, representing ELIA

The results of the European project e-Highway2050 - Modular Development Plan of the Pan-European Transmission System in 2050, which were presented in Brussels at the end of the project in late 2015, have now been reinforced in this seminar held in Beijing last September 18th and 19th. It was attended by about 50 participants of SGCC, GEIDCO and CEPRI - Chinese Electrical Power Research Institute, REN's partner in R&D Nester.

In his intervention, Rui Pestana, who led one of the work packages of this project, the WP4 that had responsibilities in the validation of operating scenarios and implementing the network projected for 2050, and was responsible for REN's application to the Electricity Highway 2050 gave to know the main resolutions of this project where REN, along with 5 other TSO's, had the responsibility to define the type of infrastructure that Europe should have in 2050 and the appropriate model for expansion in line with the European energy policy on renewable and a single market scenario. "It was broadcast that the network provided for 2030 will not be enough in 2050, due to the forecast of an increase in the generation that will force a network expansion which undoubtedly will have to take place in any of the five potential scenarios advanced by the project. Whatever the scenario is in 2050, the safety and reliability of the system in long term it requires the creation of North-South corridors and the strengthening of the northern and southern Europe interconnections with mainland central", he said.

In R&D Nester's presentation, Rui Pestana highlighted the new challenges for 2050 at the operating level, in a high renewable penetration scenario, of high energy exchanges and with a high number of connections in direct current into very high voltage integrated in the European network that will require a much more complex network in 2050 to operate before the big challenge that will be the energy flows management at very high voltage and the need to ensure the system stability in synchronized areas.

Electricity Highway 2050 Project

The e-Highway2050 project started with a consortium of 28 partners, including TSOs, REN included, associations in this performance area, a non-governmental organization, academics individualities and business entities. This project was launched on September 2012 and ended on December 2015.

The project was promoted trough FP7 (Seventh Framework Programme), an EC funding program with initiatives in R&D area, with major focus on research, and was led by RTE with major participation of ENTSO-e (Electricity Transport Operators in Europe), of which REN is a member.

The project aimed to develop a methodology for the design of a Pan-European electricity transmission network in the time period 2020-2050.

More information about the e-Highway2050 Project can be found at http://www.e-highway2050.eu/e-highway2050/.

GEIDCO - Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization

GEIDCO is an NGO founded in March 2016 that aims to build a "Global Energy Interconnection (GEI)" to accomplish the global energy consumption with clean energy and ecological alternatives. It is composed of 80 members from 14 countries on 5 continents. GEI paradigm is to use the smarts grids with Ultra High Voltage (UHV) networks and renewable production.

More information about GEIDCO can be found at http://www.geidco.org/html/qqnycoen/col2015100724/column_2015100724_1.html