For years, the debate on the energy transition has focused on a single goal: installing more wind and solar power plants. Today, however, the issue has shifted. Europe is producing more and more renewable energy, but it is struggling to use it. Not because there is a lack of demand, but because, in many cases, the power grid cannot transport it.
This is the paradox of the energy transition. On days with strong sunlight or high winds, a portion of the electricity generated is curtailed or even lost. At the same time, new power plants have to wait years to be connected to the grid. According to an analysis by the think tank Ember, more than 120 gigawatts of new renewable energy projects are at risk of being stalled due to congestion in the electricity infrastructure.
A network born in the 20th century
The reason is simple: the European power grid was designed at a time when electricity came from a few large coal-, gas-, or nuclear-fired power plants and followed predictable routes to consumption centers. Today, power generation is spread out across the country, comes from hundreds of thousands of facilities, and depends on the availability of sunlight and wind.
The growth of renewables has been much faster than that of infrastructure. The International Energy Agency (IEA) points out that a solar or wind power plant can be built in one to five years, while a new transmission line often takes five to fifteen years to complete, including design, permitting, and construction. It is this time gap that has turned the grid into one of the main obstacles to decarbonization. The IEA, too, has long highlighted the problem of grid congestion as a threat not only to climate goals but also to energy security and economic competitiveness.
The quickest solution is to eat better
Building new power transmission lines will take years and require enormous investments. That is why there is growing interest in a solution that is immediately available: increasing the system’s flexibility.
The principle is that of demand response, which has already been extensively studied in the scientific literature and is considered one of the pillars of future electric power systems. Instead of continuously adjusting generation to match consumption, part of the demand is shifted to times when renewable energy is abundant. Charging electric vehicles, operating heat pumps, certain industrial processes, and energy storage systems can be automatically scheduled for times when electricity is most readily available.
The IEA considers this flexibility, along with energy storage and smart grids, to be one of the essential tools for integrating ever-increasing shares of wind and solar power. Numerous studies published in recent years also confirm that dynamic demand management can reduce waste of renewable energy, limit the need for new infrastructure investments, and lower the overall costs of the electric power system.
The next challenge is network intelligence
The energy transition is thus entering a new phase. After rapidly increasing its generation capacity from renewable sources, Europe must learn to manage a much more complex system, in which generation, consumption, storage, and digitalization interact in real time.
The power grid thus becomes the true linchpin of decarbonization. It is not enough to simply produce more clean energy: it must be delivered where it is needed, when it is needed, and at the lowest possible cost. Otherwise, there is a risk that the success of renewables will be held back by infrastructure that remains stuck in an energy model that now belongs to the last century.
