• Justified anticipatory investments are required to ensure that grid infrastructure is built today for the needs of tomorrow. We recommend that the EU and national governments support investments in grid infrastructure, including anticipatory investments into infrastructure, an enabling regulatory framework, guarantees, and ensuring fair cost and benefit sharing between countries and stakeholders. 

• Well-designed incentives are needed to ensure that grid operators can continue to attract financing on the capital markets in times of high interest rates and supply chain volatility driving up costs. 

• Harmonisation of permitting procedures, combined with accelerated multi-project permitting at European and national level, improved reliability of forward-looking supra-national planning, enhanced auction designs, greater support for long-term framework agreements, and dialogue to foster public acceptance of clean energy infrastructure are all needed to successfully accelerate the pace of grid development, which is necessary for a well-functioning energy market. Member States should implement new permitting procedures without delay. 

• Price signals are primary drivers for investments in flexible production and consumption. Market design that ensures efficient competition through free price formation is an important factor in ensuring competitiveness.

• To ensure that offshore energy can play its crucial role in reaching Europe’s targets for renewables deployment, a new funding framework at sea basin level should be considered. Such a funding mechanism should be open to contributions from the EU, Member States, connecting third countries (both hosting and non-hosting), and private investors to help unlock projects of pan-European value. Additionally, the EIB’s counter-guarantee facility for wind should be extended to grid projects, including for grid equipment manufacturing facilities.

• REEF encourages the swift implementation of the Wind Power Action Plan, Offshore Communication, and Grid Action Plan to speed up the deployment of offshore wind energy and corresponding grid developments in all sea basins by promoting hybrid offshore interconnectors and in close coordination and collaboration with connecting countries.

• Onshore and offshore grid investments need to be coordinated across borders. An expanded offshore network that improves grid access will strengthen the internal electricity market. Robust on- and offshore connections between markets enable adequate and cost-efficient development and integration of renewable energy. In parallel, it is crucial to incentivise demand-side flexibility and promote energy-saving measures.

• Supply chain challenges like scarce manufacturing capacity, the availability of critical materials, and skilled workforce shortage, which are already creating critical obstacles for essential projects, lead to cost increases and time delays. The EU should foster the development of new initiatives and business models such as long-term framework agreements and standardisation solutions based on interoperability to alleviate supply chain shortages, accelerate the deployment of available technologies, stabilise volumes and increase scale, and develop skilled workforce availability. 

• REEF calls on the EU to work with its Member States, connecting countries, TSOs, generators, and manufacturers to work on technical and conceptual standards like voltage levels and reduction of design variants and establish functional tenders as a new standard in the grid sector, as tailor-made design requests lead to a project-by-project approach, which slows down production. Taking a standardised approach to grid technology development would achieve the required economies of scale and efficiency in the supply chain. Harmonisation of network codes should be encouraged. 

• Coordination of EU, regional, and national incentives for manufacturing capacity expansion of renewable energy and grid components must be simplified to provide predictability and enable Europe-based manufacturers to efficiently take decisions on competitive expansion planning. Possible measures to restrict imports must be balanced with the need to keep up the pace of deployment. Public procurement procedures should not only be based on price but also on value across the economy, as established in the Net-Zero Industry Act. At the same time, Europe-based technology providers must be able to continue leveraging their global supply chains. The Global Gateway Initiative can be an instrument through which strategic trade partnerships are pursued. 

• There is a need to increase the digitalisation of the energy sector and rapidly set up a resilient framework for a “European connectivity strategy” across sectors. REEF calls for a harmonised European approach to data handling, security, and AI use to build trust, resilience, and secure use of digital solutions in complex industrial systems, taking into account the strategic and critical nature of the infrastructure. Digital technologies must play a greater role in planning, building, and operating the electricity grid to provide much needed flexibility and strengthen energy security. 

• The EU should also facilitate constructive and transparent dialogue between governments and industrial stakeholders on the exchange of reliable, interoperable, and secure data especially to address supply chain challenges for a timely delivery of projects.