Ref. Ares(2020)1752911 - 25/03/2020
Meeting with Eurogas 29/01/2020
ENER B3/C2 joint contribution to Basis on Digitalisation in General
and Gas in particular
Introduction
• As stated by the new
President of the European Commission, Ursula von
der Leyen, the European Green Deal is our new growth strategy. It wil help
us cut emissions while boosting the economy and creating jobs.
• The chal enge is to move towards and achieve
2050 ambition cost-
effectively by mobilising al synergies of the energy system, including via the
smart integration of the electricity, decarbonised and renewable gases,
heating, transport and industry sectors.
• Energy transition across Europe is a huge chal enge and this is why we need
to
use all available synergies and energy carriers to achieve it.
•
Digitalisation of energy can contribute to deliver the President-elect’s twin
objectives of the European Green Deal and the Digital Age, through synergies
between instruments in both policy domains. We can only be successful if
we contribute to the policies in both areas in a coordinated way.
Natural gas
• Natural gas wil be part of the picture in the medium-term, as it is
less
carbon-intensive than either coal in the power sector or oil in the heating
and cooling sector and because it can be a source of
flexibility for the energy
system.
• Looking beyond, in a 2050 carbon-neutral economy, natural gas
consumption wil go down significantly, and wil represent only a few
percentage points of our energy consumption
1.
• The gas market needs to be more responsive to the short-term functioning
of the electricity market to be consistent with the 2050 ambition and the
Clean Energy Package. To match the flexibility of the electricity market, to
1 3-4% of gross inland consumption in the 1.5TECH and 1.5LIFE scenarios of the Long Term Strategy.
provide respective price signals and to respond to the changes in the energy
mix – gas market needs to be more integrated across the EU and liquid and
focus on short-term supply rather than long-term obligations.
• But above al , the gas market rules need to
encourage and foster
decarbonisation of the gas sector and facilitate entry of the
clean types of
gases to play an increasing role in the cost-efficient transition towards a
climate-neutral economy by 2050.
Renewable and low-carbon gases
•
Renewable and low-carbon gases (in particular biomethane and hydrogen)
wil increasingly contribute to decarbonisation. Especial y the production of
hydrogen from renewable electricity offers a key opportunity for fostering
smart sector integration, and in particular the coupling the electricity and
gas sectors.
• The Long Term Strategy (LTS) scenarios which achieve GHG neutrality by
2050 (the 1.5 scenarios) project between 200 and 250 Mtoe of gaseous
fuels consumption (which represents between 50% and 62.5% of today's
consumption of gases), including an important contribution from carbon-
free gases such as biogases but also from hydrogen (produced from RES
electricity or with CCS/U) and synthetic gases as well as a - relatively more
minor - role for natural gas.
• Renewable and low-carbon gases are covered and promoted under the
revised Renewables Directive for the period 2021 to 2030 (REDII). This is
done through a number of measures including a 14 % renewables target for
the transport sector and a specific sub-target of 3.5% on advanced biofuels
for which biogases from certain residue and waste-based feedstock can
count. Furthermore, Member States wil also be able to use gaseous
recycled carbon fuels (including renewable hydrogen) towards the 14 %
transport target.
Smart sector integration
• To achieve decarbonisation, the EU regulatory framework
must enable the
smart integration of the electricity, heating and cooling, transport, and
industry and agriculture sectors. This wil al ow at the same time achieving
higher levels of decarbonisation in the electricity sector and decarbonising
sectors that are more difficult to decarbonise.
• Sector integration wil boost the
direct electrification of other sectors and a
better use of waste resources but also facilitate the
decarbonisation of
certain end-uses via gaseous fuels produced from renewable electricity.
• Our
regulatory framework should enable and facilitate the substitution
process from natural gas to renewable and low-carbon gases such as
hydrogen and biomethane and synthetic methane. The gas market rules
would need to be fit-for-purpose to contribute to the objectives of
competitiveness, sustainability and consumer protection.
• The Commission wil present a smart sector integration strategy in Q2 of
2020 including an action plan and a timeline with relevant actions
(legislative and non-legislative) that might be brought forward.
Digitalisation in the gas sector
• The Clean Energy Package has already set an ambitious regulatory
framework when it comes to data protection, data management and
cybersecurity. It wil enable a European data-driven energy services market
of direct interest to consumers, such as electro-mobility and smart homes.
This however covered so far electricity.
• Over the next five years the Commission wil focus on the implementation of
this for electricity, at the same time we wil also need to step up our efforts
to drive investments in digitalisation of the whole energy system covering
also the gas sector. This could further facilitate flexibility, consumer
information and sector integration.
• Digitisation of the gas grids is essential for the secure monitoring and control
the gas conditions in the pipelines and billing of various gas composition.