This is a hybrid meeting by invitation only, if you wish to participate please contact: Antonio Fernandez

This new workstream aims to bring together stakeholders, including policymakers and industry on a regular basis to discuss substantive issues around the topic of hydrogen, informed by original intellectual input from ERCST.

This meeting will take stock of the main gaps in the current EU regulatory framework after the Fit for 55 Package first round of publications and how the revision of the hydrogen and decarbonized gas market package and other relevant legislative acts, such as the Delegated Act on Renewable Fuels of non-Biological Origin (RFNBO) will address them.

Natural gas, i.e. fossil methane constitutes around 95% of today’s gaseous fuels consumed in the EU. While the EC has already expressed that energy efficiency related measures and electrification will play a fundamental role to reduce emissions, in certain areas, gaseous fuels will remain present in the EU energy system. According to the Climate Target Plan Impact Assessment, the share of gaseous fuels to total EU energy consumption in 2050 would be about 20%. The EC is therefore looking at policies that facilitate a progressive phase out of unabated use of fossil gasses via gradual replacement of natural gas and the uptake of renewable and low-carbon gases.

Proposals unveiled by the Commission on July 14th have laid the foundations of a specific regulatory framework, albeit still incomplete, to promote investments in renewable hydrogen. Conversely, and pending the revision of the hydrogen and decarbonized gas market package, it seems that the Commission intends to leverage carbon pricing and the EU Taxonomy to boost demand and supply of other types of hydrogen.

Looking at the relationship between regulation and the hydrogen value chain, the Fit for 55 package first round of publications addressed fundamental questions, mainly covering demand and supply of hydrogen while key regulatory issues for hydrogen transportation and transportation infrastructure have not been fully covered so far. The hydrogen and decarbonized gas package will shed more light on important regulatory missing pieces of the hydrogen puzzle such as for example, the repurposing of current gas networks to transport hydrogen, the blending of hydrogen with natural gas, the planning of networks and retail markets or the protection of consumers and the security of the energy market.

This meeting will focus on:

• What is in the revision of the package for hydrogen?
• Will there be a comprehensive regulatory framework for hydrogen in the EU after the package? What are the missing pieces?
• Has the right balance between regulation and market-based instruments been achieved?
• What are the key KPIs to assess if the regulation is delivering the desired outcome?
• Within this framework, how should additionality be designed and defined?

10:00                  Welcome and introduction

• A. Marcu, Director of ERCST

10:05                      Background to the discussions, what to expect from the package and missing pieces

• A. Fernandez, ERCST

10:20                      Chair

• O. Imbault, ERCST

Key regulatory developments and missing pieces

• M. Moraschi, Enel
• C. Jones, FSR
• A. Laszlo-Orth, E.ON
• V. Palmisano, SNAM
• A. Scheuer, IOGP

11:20                      First round of discussions and Q&A

12:00                     End of the meeting

Workshop Materials:

20211125 Agenda v7

20210913 ERCST_Background Presentation Fit for 55 and Hydrogen v5

IOGP presentation – ERCST 04-12[1] copy

20211203 ERCST_Presentation_Meeting v4

Implications of the fit for 55 package on the EU hydrogen economy paper v14