![]() Because electricity spaces extend beyond state borders and across legal jurisdictions, they enable a diffusion of geopolitical power. Infrastructure networks create techno-political and techno-economic spheres of influence. The interplay of three factors – the electricity grid, space and geopolitical power – deserves close scrutiny. ![]() The electricity system is the backbone of any economy, and electricity grids constitute critical infrastructure. Electricity grids (“infrastructurise”) shape regions over the long term, creating their own topographies that reflect the organisation of economic and social life within a geographical area. Electricity moves almost at the speed of light and connects distant points and spans vast spaces in an interconnected grid. As a result, areas that were once considered peripheral such as the eastern Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions, and Central Asia are quickly becoming sites of competition.Įlectricity is grid-bound. Their networks are not yet as densely interconnected as those of Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union, but interconnectors are nevertheless now being directed towards them. They include not only China but also Turkey, Iran and India. In addition to the old centres of gravity, Russia and the EU, new ones are emerging. New configurations of electricity infrastructure – in the form of interconnectors (i.e., cross-border transmission lines linking grids) and integrated electricity grids – are remapping spaces by redefining the relationship of centre to periphery. The Europe-Asia continental area studied here exhibits particular dynamics. Today, the impact of electricity interconnection on international relations and geopolitics deserves the closest possible scrutiny. Beijing in particular is driving global electricity interconnectivity with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The geopolitical relevance of electricity has traditionally been underestimated But with the global transformation to greener energy and the expansion of renewables (the “energy transition”), electricity grids are gaining importance and momentum. And in South and Southeast Asia, India’s influence is on the rise. The EU, China, Russia and – across the Black Sea – Iran and Turkey are competing in these zones to influence the reconfiguration of electricity grids. The eastern Mediterranean region, the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions, and Central Asia are, each in their own way, changing from peripheral zones into interconnecting spaces. There is unmistakable competition over integration between the EU and Russia. In the EU’s eastern neighbourhood, geopolitical issues have dominated the configuration of electricity grids since the end of the Cold War. Its efforts are part of Beijing’s larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an attempt to reorient global infrastructure and commercial flows. Above all, however, Germany and the EU should help shape interconnectivity beyond the EU’s common integrated electricity grid.Ĭhina is gaining considerable influence in the electricity sector, setting standards and norms as well as expanding its strategic outreach – to the benefit of its own economy. Germany and the EU must develop an electricity foreign policy in order to optimise, modernise, strengthen and expand the European electricity grid. This is because interconnected synchronous systems form “grid communities” that share a “common destiny” – not only in terms of electricity supply but also in terms of security and welfare. ![]() In this context, it is attractive for non-EU states to belong to the electricity system of continental Europe. ![]() Interconnectors define new, partly competing vectors of integration that extend beyond already integrated electricity grids. In the Europe-Asia continental area, integrated electricity grids meet interconnectors – that is, cross-border transmission lines linking different electric grids. In political communities and beyond, such grids establish new channels for projecting geopolitical influence and new spheres of influence. Although electricity grids shape and define both political and economic spaces, the geopolitical significance of electricity remains underestimated.
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