FACTBOX-Five facts about TenneT and Transpower

AMSTERDAM, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Dutch state owned grid operator TenneT's plan to buy the power grid of German peer E.ON (EONGn.DE) may speed up the formation of an integrated northern European power market as envisaged by the European Commission. [ID:nLA660877]

Following are five facts about TenneT and the German high voltage electricity grid, Transpower, which TenneT is buying from E.ON:

* Transpower's German grid is made up of 11,000 km of electricity connections, while TenneT's Dutch grid consists of more than 9,000 km after it purchased the high voltage grids of several Dutch utilities earlier this year.

* About 36 million people live in the total catchment area of the two grids.

* TenneT is aiming to integrate the north west European market by setting up power cable links with other countries. The NorNed power link between Norway and the Netherlands, which is the longest subsea electricity cable in the world, came into service in May 2008, while construction on a similar link with Britain started earlier this year. [ID:nLB109547]

* The Transpower and TenneT grids are linked by an interconnection point between Meeden in the Netherlands and Diele in Germany. The two companies combined are linked to seven other countries.

* TenneT said in October it planned to invest about 3 billion euros ($4.5 billion) to expand its grid over the next five to seven years, mainly in the Netherlands. On Tuesday, TenneT also said it had plans to invest 3-4 billion euros in the Germany grid within the next 10 years.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)