Bridging the Euro-Mediterranean Region Power System: Impact of the HVDC ELMED Link in the Context of Mid-Term Scenarios for Tunisia

In view of bridging the Euro-Mediterranean region power system, this paper analyzes the impact of extending a pan-European zonal model to include some parts of North Africa, specifically and explicitly including Tunisia and the related corridors in a 2030 perspective. To this aim, firstly the scenarios and the related models for accounting the Tunisian and the pan-European zonal systems have been built up; secondly, an appropriate optimization tool has been used for implementing the analyses. The key effects and the preliminary impact of interconnecting Tunisia via the HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) ELMED Link to the European system at 2030 are analyzed in the paper.