Implementation of the minimum threshold of 70% of interconnection capacities for cross-border trade at France's borders: review of the year 2022 and highlights. Report, July 2023

The electricity regulation (EU) 2019/9431 revised as part of the Clean Energy Package adopted in 2019 introduces a minimum threshold of 70% of interconnection capacity to be available for cross-border exchanges. This threshold came into force on 1 January 2020 for all European transmission system operators. In application of the regulation, CRE must ensure that RTE (the French TSO) guarantees interconnection capacities in compliance with Electricity Regulation on French borders belonging to the calculation regions Central-Western Europe / Core (for borders with Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany), Italy North (for the Italian border) and South-West Europe (for the Spanish border). As the minimum threshold of 70% is intended to increase cross-border exchanges, CRE analyses whether this threshold has been reached on the network elements considered in the capacity calculation, with regard to their ability to enable additional cross-border exchanges that bring value on a European scale. Within this framework, CRE pays particular attention to lines located in France that may restrict the interconnection capacity made available for cross-border exchanges (so-called 'limiting networks elements'), as well as to time frames for which the capacity made available by transmission system operators effectively limits exchanges and prevents price convergence in the capacity calculation region. Outside these situations, any additional capacity released does not actually increase cross-border exchanges. CRE therefore categorizes these situations, in which no gain would be possible on a European scale, as compliant. Indeed, the 70% criterion encourages TSOs to implement costly measures (operational measures or investments) to increase exchanges. This incentive should only apply to time steps that represent real added value for the European power system. The year 2022 was marked by the go-live of the day-ahead coordinated capacity calculation in the Core region, which replaced the coordinated capacity calculation carried out in the Central-Western Europe region as of June 8, 2022. This report presents results for these two regions in 2022. The Core region comprises the 6 countries of the Central-Western Europe region (Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) plus 7 additional countries (Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). For the year 2022, the levels of interconnection capacity made available to cross-border exchanges by RTE comply with the 70% criterion on 87% of time steps on average over the three regions evaluated. As a result, for the vast majority, RTE has achieved the targets set by the regulation for 2022. This high level of available capacity bears witness to France's commitment to the construction of Europe's internal electricity market, and confirmed the relevance of the French network's structuring to support cross-border exchanges. From 2022 onwards, for the first time, French borders will not be subject to any derogation under the 70% criterion, which is not the case for the majority of continental European countries in 2022, and will still not be the case for 2023. In addition to implementing the minimum 70% threshold, RTE has finalized the development of tools to ensure high levels of exchange capacity without penalizing the network's operational security. These tools make it possible to provide more systematically levels of commercial capacity equal to or greater than 70% at French borders, by taking into account the corrective measures available in cases where the capacities required for commercial electricity exchanges turn out to be higher than what the physical network can absorb. In this respect, RTE uses costly remedial actions (redispatching and countertrading) like its European counterparts, but distinguishes itself by using non-costly remedial actions known as topological remedial actions, which consist of redirecting flows by modifying the network topology. These remedial actions make it possible to offer more capacity on interconnections, while limiting the costs associated with this increase in capacity. Finally, taking into account the numerous exchanges with European and French stakeholders on the implementation of the minimum 70% threshold, RTE has made freely available the data on available capacity on all the network elements considered in the capacity calculation for the Central-Western Europe, Italy North and South-West Europe regions. CRE fully supports this initiative, and believes that free access to data is a useful guarantee of transparency in developing a fuller understanding of the issues involved in implementing the 70% criterion