Electricity utilities have been
co-operating for decades, mainly in order to maximise the system's
reliability and quality of supply, while optimising the use of
primary energy and capacity resources. Four regional organisations
have emerged from this co-operation:
- TSOI, the association of TSOs in Ireland;
- UKTSOA, the United Kingdom TSO association;
- NORDEL, the Nordic TSOs, and
- UCTE, the Union for the Co ordination of Transmission of
Electricity, association of CENTREL, TSOs of the Continental
countries of Western and Central Europe.
The geographic perimeters of these organisations roughly coincide
with the boundaries of synchronously interconnected areas.
Upon the emergence of the Internal Electricity
Market (IEM) in the European Union, the leaders of the four above-mentioned
regional organisations recognised the need for an EU-wide harmonisation
of network access and conditions for usage, especially for cross-border
electricity trade. In 1999, ETSO was created as an association
with ATSOI, UKTSOA, NORDEL and UCTE as founding association members.
However, on 29 June 2001 ETSO became an International Association
with direct membership of 32 independent TSO companies from the
15 countries of the European Union plus Norway and Switzerland.
At the end of 2001 ETSO membership was enlarged to Slovenia and
CENTREL countries as full and associate members respectively.
The Czech Republic was admitted as full member in June 2003 and
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in 2004.The Estonian TSO has become ETSO Associate Member in September
2004 and the Lithuanian TSO in February 2005. The Rumanian TSO is ETSO Full Member since November 2004 and the
Cyprus TSO since September 2005. The Lithuanian TSO has become Full Member in November 2005. The Estonian & Latvian TSOs have been welcomed as Full Members in December 2005. Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia and FYROM are Associate Members of the Association. Bulgaria is Full Member since September 2007.
The networks represented by ETSO supply more than 490 million
people with electric energy. The consumption of electric energy
amounts to approx. 3200 TWh per year. The length of HV (400 and 220 kV) lines covered by ETSO is of more than 290 000 km..
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