ENTSO-E says most European 2030 transmission projects still lack completed permits

What happened

ENTSO-E’s assessment of the European Electrification Action Plan, released on 15 September, reports that more than half of the transmission projects needed by 2030 have yet to complete their permitting process.

The finding points to a substantial delivery issue in the development of Europe’s electricity network. The projects are identified as necessary within the 2030 timeframe, but their progress through approvals remains incomplete.

ENTSO-E proposes changes intended to make permitting easier to navigate. Its recommendations include simpler, more transparent and more predictable consent procedures, alongside lower burdens from regulations that overlap. It also says grid planning should account for realistic durations for both permissions and construction.

Why it matters

According to the assessment, renewable energy, storage and robust electricity networks must advance together to meet electrification objectives. Transmission build-out therefore needs to be considered alongside the deployment of generation and storage, rather than as a separate task.

Incomplete permissions are a practical constraint on the delivery timetable for the transmission schemes concerned. ENTSO-E’s recommendations focus on the process conditions surrounding projects: the design of approvals, the regulatory burden placed on them, and planning assumptions about how long delivery can take.

GENSED says the same approach is relevant for Türkiye. In its account of the assessment, the association links greater renewable deployment with a stronger and more flexible grid.

What readers should do next

Developers, network planners and public authorities should test whether project plans allow sufficient time for consent and construction. They should also identify where approval requirements duplicate one another and where processes lack clarity or predictability.

ENTSO-E’s proposed approach is to consider funding, permitting and supply-chain issues together. For organisations working on grid-related investment or planning, this means treating these factors as connected delivery requirements rather than addressing each in isolation.

The assessment places the relevant transmission programme against a 2030 horizon. Its central message is that network planning needs delivery assumptions that match the time required to secure authorisations and build the infrastructure.