The Continental Europe Synchronous Area (CESA), formerly known as the UCTE grid, is one of the largest synchronous electrical grids in the world, primarily operating in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. It is interconnected as a single phase-locked mains frequency electricity grid that supplies over customers in , including most of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. In 2009, of production capacity was connected to the grid, providing approximately of

operating reserve In electricity networks, the operating reserve is the generating capacity available to the system operator within a short interval of time to meet demand in case a generator goes down or there is another disruption to the supply. Most power sy ...

margin. The transmission system operators operating this grid formed the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE), now part of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).

Area

The synchronous grid of

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

covers territory of the ENTSO-E continental Europe regional group and some neighbouring countries not involved in the ENTSO-E. As of 2025, the synchronous grid includes all or parts of the following countries: * * * * * * * * (West) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The grids of

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

and

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

are synchronised with the European grid through the Gibraltar AC link and form the South West Mediterranean Block. In April 2015, the grid of Turkey was synchronised with the European grid. Although synchronous, some countries operate in a near island mode, with low connectivity to other countries. The

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

considers high connectivity to be beneficial, and has listed several interconnection projects as Projects of Common Interest. However, the national grids must also be upgraded to handle increased power flows if the values of a free energy market are to be realised in the EU. On 16 March 2022, during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the ENTSO-E set up synchronisation with the networks of Ukraine and Moldova on an emergency basis to provide external support for the power supply in those countries. Plans for Ukraine to shift from the Russian grid to the European grid were already in progress, with an experimental separation from the Russian grid underway when the invasion occurred. Power exchange and integration gradually increased, and by August 2022, 400–700 MW were sent from Ukraine to Eastern parts of EU. The three

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

and

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

disconnected from IPS/UPS on 8 February 2025 and on 9 February 2025 synchronised with the continental grid. On 2025, Cyprus and Greece approved an electricity cable to link its power grid. France’s Nexans is building the cable and Germany’s Siemens will be contracted to build the onshore transformers. The cable will eventually continue from Cyprus to connect with Israel’s electricity grid.

List of electricity interconnection levels

Electricity interconnection as percentage (EIL = electricity interconnection level) of installed electricity production capacity in 2014; the EU goal of at least 10% for 2020, and 15% for 2030.COM/2015/082 final: "Achieving the 10% electricity interconnection target
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Alternative formulas for calculating interconnection levels are based on peak load instead of installed capacity. Some border transmissions, particularly around the Alps, have both high utilization rate and high price difference, implying that further transmission would be beneficial.

Interconnections

The British grid is not synchronized with the continental Europe frequency, but it is interconnected using high-voltage direct current (HVDC) via the HVDC Cross-Channel (IFA), BritNed, Nemo Link, IFA-2, North Sea Link, Viking Link and ElecLink links. In 2014, before Nemo Link, IFA-2, North Sea Link, Viking Link and ElecLink became operational, the United Kingdom's electricity interconnection level was 6%. The networks of Ireland and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

form the ENTSO-E Irish regional group, which is not yet interconnected with the continental Europe grid, but has DC interconnections with the British network through the HVDC East–West Interconnector, Moyle Interconnector and Greenlink. Similarly, the Nordic regional group of ENTSO-E (former NORDEL), composed of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the eastern part of Denmark ( Zealand with islands and Bornholm), is not synchronized with the continental Europe, but has a number of non-synchronous DC connections with the continental Europe grid.

Gotland Gotland (; ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...

is not synchronized with the Swedish mainland, as it is connected by

HVDC A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating current (AC) transmission systems. Most HVDC links use voltages betwe ...

. The network of ENTSO-E Baltic regional group, composed of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is interconnected with the Nordic grid at an electricity interconnection level of 10% through the HVDC Estlink cables and NordBalt cable, which is functioning since 2015. The Baltic States synchronize with the continental Europe grid through the Lithuania–Poland interconnection. The networks of Iceland and Cyprus are not yet interconnected with the other grids. Malta is connected up to 35% via the Malta-Sicily interconnector, commissioned in 2015.

Future extension plans

ENTSO-E is studying the following extensions: * Tunisia–Libya synchronous connection: to synchronise continental Europe with Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon (the latter five countries constitute the SEMB of the Mediterranean Electricity Ring project), in addition to other projects in the Mediterranean Sea, not necessarily relying on a synchronous connection, such as: ** EuroAsia Interconnector HVDC project between Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, ** DESERTEC concept. * ENTSO-E Nordic regional group synchronous extension. * Turkey-Iraq synchronous interconnection: in the past the Armenia and Turkmenistan networks were part of the Soviet unified system, but currently they are connected to the Iran grid.

References

{{Reflist

External links

ENTSO-E website
Electric power transmission systems in Europe Electric power in the European Union

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...