Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen will present his grids package on 10 December — and, in a season characterised by surprise packages, there’s certainly plenty of excitement brewing in the Brussels bubble.
“It’s going to be like Christmas,” one lobbyist told Contexte. “I hope this is one of the cases that I will not be disappointed.”
Like many an excited child, the lobbyist — from the renewable sector — is also presumably hoping there won’t be too much coal.
To save you from tears, Contexte has rattled the boxes, double-checked the leaks, and is presenting our best guess as to what will be in the package due on 10 December.
Ho-ho-holistic planning
One problem Jørgensen will want to address is the mismatch between grid planning and climate goals.
Most grid development is carried out through National Development Plans — but these aren’t systematically aligned with National Energy and Climate Plans, intended to translate Brussels’ overall decarbonisation objectives.
As a solution, the Commission wants to ”tackle the way this planning is done and make sure that there’s coherence, whether it’s bottom up or top down,” Tom Howes, an advisor for the Commission’s DG ENER on energy market regulation, said at a 12 November webinar.
In France, renewable energy installation projects with a total capacity of 39 GW are currently stuck on stand-by due to a lack of grid access — in Finland, this figure is 400 GW, according to a May 2025 think tank study. (For comparison, the total capacity of the French nuclear fleet is 61.4 GW.)
The sector is expecting corresponding revisions to the Trans-European Networks for Energy Regulation, TEN-E — but the question is how far the Commission will go.
Speaking to MEPs on 5 November, Jørgensen committed to introducing “more planning at the European level”; in a later 20 November address to the Parliament’s energy committee, he confirmed that there would be a proposal to revise TEN-E.
Expect national resistance. Capitals are often cautious about surrendering power to Brussels; grid operators say they are open to simplifying the planning process, but will be wary of attempts to take away their own decision-making powers.
EU lobby group Eurelectric suggests first focusing on implementing a 2024 electricity market reform, which many countries are still putting into national law.
But MEPs such as Anna Stürgkh (Renew), who led work on the Parliament’s grids report adopted in early June, welcome the Commission’s early signals.
“Truly European grid planning, which would focus on cross-border connections, is essential not only to boost European competitiveness, but also to lower prices for European households,” Stürgkh told Contexte.
Other observers call for an even fuller overhaul, separating the ownership and maintenance of infrastructure on one side, and grid planning and operation functions on the other, with a new independent body managing the latter.
This “would help us make intelligent, cost-effective decisions that would reduce costs for everyone,” says Rheanna Johnston, a senior policy advisor at E3G, a climate NGO.
Paying
Another issue is who pays for electricity needs — especially cross-border ones.
Current cost-sharing mechanisms are “limited and difficult to implement,” discouraging investment, according to a June report from the European Parliament: especially when it comes to building infrastructure whose benefits accrue to countries other than those they physically cross.
Half of the EU’s cross-border electricity needs (32 GW out of 66 GW) will not be met by 2030, the Commission said in an impact assessment.
The Commission will remedy this and “look again at the cost-sharing arrangements,” Howes said. “We have to be sure that all the different benefits, including the system-wide benefits from cross-border infrastructure, are reflected in the calculus,” he said.
The TEN-E revision might also look at issues like transparency and data sharing within distribution and transmission grids, essential for effective planning.
The Commission’s communication on grid connections is highly anticipated. In the working version obtained by Contexte, the European executive appears ready to move away from the “first come, first served” principle, which still prevails.
Some hold the principle responsible for lengthy waiting lists, as projects that submit early requests can end up stalling and blocking access for more mature ones. Early signs are that the change will get a warm reception from users.
Distribution operators, too, are ”looking for guidance to know who to prioritise,” says Savannah Altvater, a policy expert for Eurelectric, calling for a “clear message” from the Commission and a “clear legal mandate for governments to establish this priority at the national level.”
Permits
Permitting is a chronic issue for the energy sector: it “represents more than half of the total implementation time” for infrastructure projects, Jørgensen has said.
Electricity grid permits can take up to ten years, renewables up to nine years, and even simple medium-voltage grid reinforcements up to three, he said.
Lobby group SolarPower Europe has complained that permitting timelines for renewable projects are ”double the maximum duration allowed” under the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive, REDIII.
The complexity of the application process also leads to big delays in developing grid infrastructure, DigitalEurope said, citing it as one of the main reasons infrastructure “is not keeping pace with Europe’s rising electricity demand and clean energy deployment.”
On 20 November, Jørgensen confirmed that there would be legislative changes linked to permitting.
A consultation note in May said the Commission aims to “streamline” the procedures and steps, such as environmental assessments that allow for grid infrastructure, renewables and storage projects to be built.
Mechthild Wörsdörfer, deputy director-general at the EU executive’s energy department DG ENER, told MEPs on 22 September that the package would accelerate permitting for grids by “mirroring” parts of REDIII — likely Article 15, which covers accelerated permitting areas for renewable energy.
A lobbyist who has viewed a draft of the grids package told Contexte the plans were a “copy and paste” of RED III, and a Council source told Contexte that there would also be changes to the Electricity Market Directive (EMD).
Going digital
Howes told the 12 November webinar the Commission is working on digitising the permitting process further — but those measures may not prove enough for some.
Louis Philippe, head of Grid Strategy at the Luxembourg transmission service operator (TSO), CREOS, told Contexte he favours the emergency regulations the EU introduced during the energy price crisis in 2022, as more effective than REDIII.
There should also be more enforceable, fixed deadlines for member states to approve permits for projects of common interest (PCI), a list of 200-odd priority cross-border projects, Philippe said.
Yet, whatever’s in the package, implementation may prove a problem.
It’s a “massive issue” that TSOs are “really slow to harmonise”, an ENTSO-E source told Contexte. The source poured cold water over any EU-wide changes the Commission might make in REDIII and EMD.
“It takes years for them [TSOs] to implement things that should be basic, but they don't do it,” added the source.
For every Christmas, there’s a grinch.
