On Friday 3 June the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) published a series of recommendations on the legislative package to promote hydrogen and “decarbonised gases” in order to avoid legislative “maladaptations”.
They call on the EU to guard against the risk of becoming trapped in “inappropriate technologies to meet climate goals” by trying to develop a European market for renewable hydrogen.
This recommendation echoes some of the criticism from environmental NGOs. The latter had criticised the European Commission for giving too much space to fossil gas in the new gas package presented on 15 December 2021 (see EUROPE 12855/28).
The regulators also reiterate their call for flexibility to phase in the regulation of hydrogen networks by allowing derogations and exemptions, while respecting the 2030 target date.
This recommendation stems from the fact that ACER and CEER consider the Commission’s objective of establishing a truly competitive European hydrogen market by 2030 to be rather ambitious.
“Due to the infancy of (large-scale) hydrogen technologies, regulators consider the pace at which the hydrogen market will develop in different Member States to be uncertain”, the document published by the regulators stresses.
In order to ensure security of gas supply, ACER and CEER recommend introducing a link between actual gas consumption and storage capacity of Member States and other specificities such as availability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) or seasonality of demand when setting filling requirements.
The two organisations also call for measures to mitigate the impact on consumers of the switch from gas to electricity for heating, particularly for the most vulnerable households.
See the recommendations of the regulators: https://aeur.eu/f/1y0 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)