The European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, presented to the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on Tuesday 15 December the proposal for the revision of the European Union Regulation (347/2013) on Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E).
While MEPs broadly welcomed the proposal, several felt that the Commission could have gone even further in responding to the criticism regularly levelled at the current regulation on its incompatibility with the European Green Deal (see EUROPE 12605/13).
Dating from 2013, the TEN-E Regulation aims to establish a framework for the planning of cross-border energy infrastructure in order to modernise and develop European energy infrastructure.
It essentially pursues four objectives: – addressing the fragmentation of interconnections between Member States and ending their isolation from gas networks and power grids; – securing and diversifying the Union’s energy supplies, sources and routes; – making the energy market more competitive; – increasing the integration of renewable energy sources.
With this in mind, the Regulation establishes rules for the identification and development of projects of common interest (PCIs), i.e., infrastructure projects considered essential for completing the European energy market and which have a significant impact on at least two EU Member States.
Once included on the PCI list—which requires a number of criteria to be met—projects become eligible for a number of benefits, including the possibility of being supported by EU funds under the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ (CEF).
Strengthening the sustainability criterion
In its proposal presented on Tuesday, the Commission intends in particular to adapt the regulation to the objectives of the European Green Deal.
Above all, it would like the sustainability criterion to become mandatory for each category of infrastructure. This means that proponents of a project applying for inclusion on the PCI list would have to demonstrate the positive contribution of the project in terms of sustainability in order to be considered for the list.
In addition, they will have to report on the compliance of each project with EU environmental legislation and the ‘do no harm’ principle, Ms Simson said.
As a provisional version of the proposal detailed in our lines (see EUROPE 12618/9) foreshadowed, the Commission also suggests removing the possibility of projects for the transport of oil benefiting from PCI status.
The end of natural gas financing?
For gas, on the other hand, the text is less clear. Although the Commission proposes to exclude natural gas infrastructure from the revised TEN-E Regulation, it also plans to introduce three new categories which may be related to natural gas: for smart gas network projects, for hydrogen projects and for electrolysers.
Thus, according to MEPs Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA, France) and Marc Botenga (GUE/NGL, Belgium), the text includes “back doors” in favour of natural gas. For example, Ms Toussaint regretted that the part of the proposal on hydrogen was not limited to renewable hydrogen (produced from electrolysers powered by electricity from renewable energy sources).
For her part, Ms Simson argued that the proposed criteria for selecting hydrogen transport projects reflect the Commission’s desire to focus on renewable hydrogen rather than low-carbon hydrogen (produced from natural gas in combination with carbon capture and storage technologies).
“At the time of assessment, renewable hydrogen projects will receive extra points and thus, will rank higher in the PCI list”, the Commissioner explained.
She further underlined the fact that cross-border hydrogen transport networks, covering both the adaptation of existing infrastructures for the exclusive transport of hydrogen and the construction of new hydrogen infrastructures, “will thereafter only carry hydrogen”. She added that “no natural gas will flow in these pipelines”.
On the category for smart gas networks, Ms Simson said that the Commission proposes to target projects to upgrade the networks needed to integrate renewable and low-carbon gases from local distribution to transmission level.
“Again, let me be very clear here, this category does not mean support to natural gas pipelines”, she then insisted.
Finally, with regard to electrolysers, electrolysis equipment that produces low-carbon hydrogen may be eligible to become a PCI if it can demonstrate greenhouse gas reductions (at least 70% GHG reduction compared to fossil fuels on based on a life cycle), one European official explained to EUROPE.
He added, “This could be the case for electrolysers that take electricity from the grid that is not exclusively renewable, but has a low carbon-intensity”.
According to the Commission proposal, these electrolyser projects would nevertheless not have access to CEF funding, but could benefit from co-ordinated planning and simplified authorisation procedures, provided they are large (over 100 megawatts).
See the proposed revision: https://bit.ly/3npV3Qs (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)