"No transition without transmission"

Prysmian at the second annual conference of The Friends Of The Supergrid.

Milan, 19 March 2013. Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry will be present at and strongly supporting “Supergrid 2013”, the second edition of the annual conference of “Friends of the Supergrid” (FOSG) that will take place in Brussels, today March 19.

After the success of “Supergrid 2012”, this second conference aims at continuing the progressive discussion of the backbone of Europe’s decarbonised power sector and its purpose is to restate the importance of creating a European grid network to capture the large amounts of renewable energy which will help reduce consumers bills, enable the delivery of 2020 targets and beyond, and enhance Europe’s energy security and independence.

FOSG are a group of companies who gathered in association to promoting and supporting the development of “a pan-European transmission network (the Supergrid) facilitating the integration of large-scale renewable energy and the balancing and transportation of electricity, with the aim of improving the European market”. Starting from the initial ten founding members, the association counts today twenty-three full members, including manufacturers, developers, contractors, consultants and utilities.

Prysmian Group, along with other nine leading companies in the supply chain related to the development of energy infrastructure, is one of FOSG founding members and has representatives in several FOSG working groups. “As all FOSG member companies the Group strongly believes in the development of the Supergrid in Europe and understands that it is not only a brilliant business opportunity for those who take part to the association, but also a priority need for Europe, in order to enable the achievement of its targets in terms of sustainability, free market and energy independence” states Marcello Del Brenna, CEO of Prysmian Powerlink and Chairman of the Board of Friends of the Supergrid.

In his 2012 conference closing remarks, Del Brenna highlighted that “Transition to a transformed energy system will not happen without a new approach to transmission, there are no technology ‘show-stoppers’ to the development of a European Supergrid. The availability of key grid technologies is assumed and point-to-point connections could be expanded to multi-terminal building blocks for a larger overlaid grid. A new European regulatory framework is therefore required in the future that allows for the early phases of the European Supergrid to be built in the decade from 2015”. These will also be his starting points for the 2013 conference title of which is “No Transition without Transmission”.

Among the confirmed and actively participating keynote speakers, moderators and panellist at “Supergrid 2013” it is worth mentioning the prestigious presence of Jeremy Rifkin, world economist, founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends (USA), author of “The Third Industrial Revolution; How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy and the World”.