Belgian buyer Elia plans to create a European power market – and integrate larger part of renewable energy sources.

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Sweden’s state-owned power group Vattenfall, the third-biggest German electricity provider, has agreed to sell its German high-voltage grid for 810 million euro (8 billion kronor), the company said in a statement Friday.

The buyers of the 9,700 kilometers power lines are Belgian transmission system operator Elia and to the Australian Industry Funds Management (IFM), one of the largest global infrastructure investment managers.

“Grids are an attractive asset, even if the growth prospects aren’t huge,” Bernhard Jeggle, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart told Bloomberg. “It’ll pay off for Elia if the regulator loosens up a bit.”

Buying the grid bordering the Czech Republic and Poland will help establish a European power market.

“With this investment in close partnership with IFM, we will be better positioned to participate in the growth of a truly European electricity market in the region”, Elia's chief executive officer Daniel Dobbeni said.

A European market plan would also integrate larger part of renewable energy sources among which wind energy, in line with national and European energy policy.

Elia is also working on reinforcing off-shore wind energy production aimed a feeding a large grid that will cover central and western Europe. 

The Belgian firm will own 60 percent and have operational control and IFM the rest.

“We are very pleased to have found investors that fulfil all criteria that we have set for a sale; that they have a long-term focus, that they ensure substantial investments in network expansion and grant continued free access for all power generators, and promote the flow of electricity across national borders,” Lars G. Josefsson, Vattenfall’s CEO, said in the statement.   

The deal is subject to approval by competent authorities but was expected to be finalised in the second quarter of 2010.

The Vattenfall grid today serves some 18 million people in northern and eastern Germany and extends for 9,700 kilometres (6,000 miles).

And the deal comes less than a month after E.ON, the biggest German power company, sold its distribution grid to the Dutch group TenneT for 1.1 billion euros.