UFE’s position on the upcoming EU Grid Package

As Europe accelerates its transition towards a climate-neutral economy, electricity grids have become the central nervous system of the energy transition. Without a robust, expanded, modernised and flexible network, there will be no large-scale electrification, no integration of new generation capacity, and no energy sovereignty. Grids cannot be considered independently from overall energy policy, nor are they purely economic objects. They are critical to ensuring security of supply for every single Member State which is sovereign in its choice of energy mix. Beyond modernisation and grid reinforcement, grid development closely depends on Member States’ policy choices, especially their electricity mix.

The upcoming EU Grid Package is a crucial opportunity to address the structural and regulatory obstacles that are currently slowing down investment, planning and delivery of grid infrastructure. It must mark a turning point, a genuine shift in ambition, enabling grids to meet the unprecedented challenges of the next decades. The future of the European power system depends on the capacity of grids to evolve in time, at scale, and with full system efficiency. This means revisiting planning and permitting, accelerating investments, deploying flexibility at scale, and ensuring fair access to EU funding.

The success of the Grid Package will depend on how the fundamental characteristics of the power system are taken into consideration.

Union Française de l’Électricité (UFE) puts forward the following recommendations to help make the Grid Package a strategic success and ensure great performance.