On Tuesday 2 July, the European Commission published the conclusions of the 10th Energy Infrastructure Forum, held on 21 June in Copenhagen (see EUROPE 13441/17), which focused on the development of the EU’s energy infrastructures, including those dedicated to hydrogen.
The Forum stressed the need for integrated and optimised network planning, taking into account the synergies between “electrons, heat and molecules”.
It invited Member States to include renewable capacity dedicated to offshore hydrogen production in their updated non-binding offshore commitments, while taking into account maritime spatial planning requirements.
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) is invited to incorporate these data into future offshore plans and to work with ENNOH (for hydrogen transmission), ENTSOG (for gas transmission) and stakeholders to draw up these plans.
According to the Forum’s conclusions, ENNOH, ENTSOG and the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) should develop criteria for infrastructure reallocation as part of European infrastructure planning, with the help of the European Commission.
Forum participants also consider it essential to strengthen collaboration between TSOs and DSOs (transmission and distribution system operators) on network planning in order to ensure consistency with energy and climate objectives, transparency and data exchange.
In addition, the Forum stresses that ACER, the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) and national regulatory authorities (NRAs) should develop European indicators for smart grids, in cooperation with ENTSO-E and the EU DSO Entity, and present them at the next Forum meeting.
The Forum then calls on ACER to continue its work on the Grid Action Plan (see EUROPE 13302/8) by providing greater support to national regulatory authorities in implementing innovative regulatory approaches.
It also calls for tariff and revenue regulation regimes to facilitate the integration of innovative technologies and network efficiency.
Finally, the European Commission is called upon to collect data and information on integrating anticipated investments to promote network development, in accordance with Action 4 of the Grid Action Plan.
To see the Forum’s conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/cwn (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)