IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2015 - 51

The environmental assessment methodology
is based on a strategic environmental and
sustainability assessment.
Stakeholder Involvement
One important objective of the e-Highway2050 project is to
set up a framework for a continuous dialogue with the relevant
stakeholders and to ensure constant stakeholder involvement
in which different interests and questions from the various
groups on specific topics can be taken into account.
Stakeholder involvement was solicited at an early stage
in the development of the project to open up the possibility
of influencing decisions. The participation of stakeholders is
fostered by:
✔✔ securing transparency through information giving via
different channels (a top-down process)
✔✔ collecting information about attitudes, positions, opinions, and preferences that will assist understanding
within the project and enable new approaches to be
developed (a bottom-up process)
✔✔ discussing and consulting on open questions and gathering feedback on specific issues and proposals.
The stakeholder framework involves the stakeholder groups
depicted in Figure 15. Within this stakeholder arena, EU
associations and umbrella organizations are the focal points.
In addition, the project interacts closely with the Electricity
Highways Stakeholder Platform, chaired by the European
Commission, which serves as an open forum for exchanging
views on all issues related to the development of a future panEuropean EHS concept.
During the project term, several workshops on specific
topics will serve as forums for direct dialogue about issues
and preliminary results related to particular work packages.
Other involvement measures-for instance, online consultations-will address a wider stakeholder circle. The project
Web site serves as a platform that gives an overview of e-Highway2050's goals and structure, the consortium behind it, and
project news and progress.

Conclusions
The e-Highway2050 project was launched to define the transmission grid that should be developed in the context of the
decarbonized energy mix expected to be in place in Europe
by 2050. The final results of the project will be provided by
the end of 2015.
Thus far, results have focused on the definition of the scenarios, the modeling to apply for system simulation, and the
method used to define the grid architecture for 2050. A clustering technique was developed to describe the pan-European
grid to model the complex meshed network.

january/february 2015

For the next steps of the project, grid architecture options
capable of alleviating the detected overloads in 2050 will be
proposed, and a portfolio of candidate grid architectures will
be selected, taking into account such available technologies
and solutions as ac and dc interconnections, hybrid ac and
dc interconnections, and power electronics that can control
flows well over long distances.
To assess these candidate grid architectures, an assessment of costs and benefits will be performed to rank the
transmission options using a socioeconomic impact analysis
incorporating the costs, risks, and benefits for society and the
stakeholders. Then, environmental and operational assessments will select the most efficient options from the ranked
list. Finally, the path to follow to implement a modular grid
development plan from now till 2050 will be described, taking into consideration the aspect of governance.

For Further Reading
European Commission. (2011). Energy Roadmap 2050 impact
assessment and scenario analysis. [Online]. Available: http://
ec.europa.eu/energy/energy2020/roadmap/doc/roadmap2050_
ia_20120430_en.pdf
Highway 2050. (2013). e-Highway2050. [Online]. Available: http://www.e-highway2050.eu
ENTSO-E. (2012). Ten-year network development plan
(TYNDP). [Online]. Available: www.entsoe.eu/major-projects/ten-year-network-development-plan/
M. do Rosário Partidário. (2012). Strategic environmental
assessment better practice guide-Methodological guidance
for strategic thinking in SEA. [Online]. Available: http://
ec.europa.eu/environment/eia/pdf/2012%20SEA_Guidance_Portugal.pdf

Biographies
Gerald Sanchis is with RTE, France.
Brahim Betraoui is with RTE, France.
Thomas Anderski is with Amprion, Germany.
Eric Peirano is with Technofi, France.
Rui Pestana is with REN, Portugal.
Bernard De Clercq is with Elia, Belgium.
Gianluigi Migliavacca is with RSE, Italy.
Marc Czernie is with dena, Germany.
Mihai Paun is with ENTSO-E, Belgium.
p&e

ieee power & energy magazine

http://http:// http://ec.europa.eu/energy/energy2020/roadmap/doc/roadmap2050_ http://www.e-highway2050.eu http://www.entsoe.eu/major-proj http://http:// http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eia/pdf/2012 SEA_Guid

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2015