In its White Paper "Energy for the Future: Renewable Sources of Energy" the European Commission has set up a target of 40 000 MW to be produced by Wind Power for 2010. The 2001/77/EC Directive states the priority access to the electricity grid systems for electricity produced from renewable energy sources (RES), and points at standard rules for sharing the costs of possible grid reinforcements. Globally, in Europe, wind energy has got the highest growth of all RES.

A Consortium of 15 Transmission System Operators (TSO) representing 13 countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom), representing the four main synchronous electricity systems in Europe, proposes a Specific support action (SSA) to identify and investigate the impacts of introducing a large number of wind power plants into the electric power systems in Europe.