The Master Plan for the Mediterranean Electricity Interconnections regards the work undertaken by Med-TSO under the Project “Paving the Way for the Mediterranean Solar Plan” (PWMSP), launched by the European Commission in 2010.
The main goal of PWMSP was a technical assistance to the Institutions and the Energy Companies of 9 Mediterranean beneficiary Countries, providing technical proposal and know how transfer for the framework aiming at the promotion of RES production in the Southern and Eastern  Shore of the Mediterranean and the integration of the Mediterranean power systems
The European Commission commissioned in 2013 to the newborn Med-TSO an addendum to the project: “Master Plan of the Mediterranean Electricity Interconnections”.
The Master Plan responds to:

• the need to coordinate the interconnection projects at a regional level and the interconnected grids operation
• the goal to develop international electricity exchanges in the Mediterranean

Scope of the document:

• to collect and analyze the NDP of the Power Systems belonging to the Mediterranean Area, in continuity with the Task A and B of PWMSP project
• to compare and merge at regional basis the contents of the NDPs
• to extract the most relevant information to evaluate the potentialities of the interconnection’s evolution
• to detect possible criticalities for the full interconnection development
• Constitute a key reference for a future work on common grid studies

STRUCTURE

During its activities from January to July 2013, Med-TSO developed “Master Plan of the Mediterranean Electricity Interconnections”  in four deliverables on the basis of two main objectives:

• Sharing criteria among the Mediterranean TSOs, consistent with ENTSO-E experience, of a coordinated rolling planning of transmission infrastructures;
• Analyzing projects of interconnections and related reinforcements of internal grids planned at short-term, whose feasibility studies are available and, where applicable, eligible for European PCI (Projects of Common Interest) and ENTSO-E coordinated planning procedures.

Deliverables:
National Development Plans (NDPs) of the Mediterranean Countries 2012 – 2022
Master Plan of the Mediterranean Interconnections
Mediterranean Reference Grid at short term (on rolling base) 
Guidelines for coordinated planning

The activities have been coordinated by the Supervisory Team of Med-TSO 

ACKNOLEWDGEMENT

The Master Plan of the Mediterranean electricity interconnections has been illustrated by Noureddine Boutarfa, Chairman of Med-TSO, in the occasion of the Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial Meeting on Energy, hosted by the European Commission the 11th of December 2013 in Brussels.