Cover Osteuropa 4-6/2021

In Osteuropa 4-6/2021

Electrification and Europeanization
A Brief History of Power Grids in the Czech Republic

Marcela Efmertova, Jan Mikeš, Jaroslav Knápek


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

Power grids are the arteries of national and transnational integration. They increase the security of supply and ensure economic synergy effects. Whenever the masterminds of European unification presented plans for pan-European power grids in the 1920s, Czechoslovakia was always involved. However, the division of Europe after the Second World War led to Czechoslovakia’s integration into grid of the Comecon countries, which was largely decoupled from Western Europe. Since 1995, the Czech network of transmission lines has been an integral part of the European power generation and distribution grid, and the Czech Republic plays an important role in the power supply in Central Europe.

(Osteuropa 4-6/2021, pp. 335–344)