In a biennial opinion published on Tuesday 19 November, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators highlights a “modest but encouraging” growing consistency in gas network planning, with a move to align national gas and hydrogen network development plans (NDPs) with the EU-wide Ten-Year Network Development Plan (EU TYNDP).
ACER points out that there are now more consolidated plans from network operators published at Member State level rather than separate publications from each operator, and that there are also more scenario planning processes that take into account the gas and electricity sectors jointly.
The NDPs are also making progress in integrating low-carbon and renewable gases, with several countries specifically developing hydrogen strategies, legal frameworks and planning activities.
As a result, the consistency of hydrogen TYNDP projects included in the NDPs has risen from 17% in 2022 to 33% in 2024.
However, to further improve the consistency of NDPs, ACER recommends, among other things, coordination with neighbouring operators and coordination of the national planning timetable with the EU TYNDP development process as far as possible.
ACER now encourages Member States and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) to take its opinion into account in the implementation of the ‘gas’ package (see EUROPE 13455/26) in order to increase consistency in future national and European plans.
Opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/eep (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)