Working paper
The TEN-E Regulation: allowing a role for decarbonised gas
- Abstract:
- The original TEN-E Regulation, adopted in 2013, established the regulatory framework for the development of cross-border energy infrastructure within the EU. Following the publication of the EU Green Deal in 2019, the EC proposed to revise the Regulation to facilitate the access of renewable and low carbon gases to the energy system by enabling hydrogen infrastructure to benefit from PCI status and thus faster permitting and EU financial assistance. This paper analyses the final Regulation as well as the evolutionary journey from the EC Proposal to the final Regulation. The paper finds that the final Regulation enables and supports ‘hybrid’ decarbonization, which would allow renewable hydrogen to be maximized while low carbon hydrogen is allowed to play a role which allows for renewable hydrogen to be phased in more quickly, thus helping to meet the EU GHG emissions reduction targets. Nonetheless, it remains unclear whether low carbon hydrogen will play an important role in the European energy transition. The combination of (a) natural gas being politically unpopular and expensive, (b) too few CCUS projects making substantial progress, (c) the EU’s unequivocal political preference for renewable hydrogen, makes low carbon hydrogen progress less likely. Overall, the Regulation provides a positive contribution towards a regulatory framework for the decarbonization of the EU’s natural gas infrastructure. It allows more time for doing so compared to the original EC Proposal and provides additional instruments for developing low carbon hydrogen. But it also confirms that unless low carbon hydrogen projects receive financial support and make significant progress before 2030, they are unlikely to happen at all. In fact, these projects would only be possible if investment is made now – rather than in the mid-2020s when Renewable and Natural Gases and Hydrogen Acquis is expected to be adopted. As private investors might be reluctant to invest and EU Member States might be reluctant to support these investments (at least until such time as the Acquis provides more clarity) and as the Regulation does not envisage significant EU financial support, any major low carbon hydrogen contribution towards meeting EU 2030 GHG emissions reduction targets is far from assured.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Authors
- Publisher:
- Oxford Institute of Energy Studies
- Series:
- OIES paper
- Place of publication:
- Oxford
- Publication date:
- 2022-08-01
- Paper number:
- NG 174
- ISBN:
- 978-1-78467-203-4
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
-
- Deposit date:
-
2022-08-02
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Oxford Institute for Energy Studies
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © 2022 Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. This publication may be reproduced in part for educational or non-profit purposes without special permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgment of the source is made. No use of this publication may be made for resale or for any other commercial purpose whatsoever without prior permission in writing from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
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