Sian Crampsie
The German chapter of the World Energy Council (WEC) says that greater co-operation among European electricity markets would improve security of supply.
Weltenergierat Deutschland has published a study analysing the opportunities for improved cooperation in Europe and says that "substantial benefits" would arise from further integration of electricity markets.
The study - carried out by Prognos AG - comes after the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy issued a "Declaration on regional cooperation" at the recent European Council of Energy Ministers.
That declaration was signed by Germany and 12 of its neighbours.
The European Commission is also attempting to heighten co-operation among Europe's energy markets through its proposed Energy Union.
WEC's analysis shows that residual load during peak hours would fall if electricity markets were more integrated and if there were no grid congestion. By making use of the not-always-concurrent power demand in Europe and the weather-dependent feed-in of renewable energy, residual load could fall by 15-50 GW among the study domain of 15 countries.
"We need to make better use of these potential synergies. However, we can only leverage them by better coordination between European neighbors," said Dr. Leonhard Birnbaum, Vice Chair Europe of the World Energy Council.
Birnbaum added: "We support the declaration of the energy ministers and the identified 'no regrets' for regional cooperation. There are still important steps lacking towards the completion of a European single market for energy, but these kind of initiatives point us in the right direction."
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