Gas integration by TSOs and DSOs under way in Europe
Pieter van Aartsen, ENNOH foundational moderator. Image: ENNOH
An enlarged DSO Entity and a new organisation for hydrogen network operators are progressing towards the sector integration of electricity and gas.
The reform of Europe’s electricity market design and the decarbonised gas and hydrogen market package, which was adopted by the EU Council on May 21 and will take effect towards the end of the year, is introducing new obligations for the organisation of the TSOs and DSOs.
One of these is the incorporation of the gas and hydrogen DSOs into the DSO Entity, which was established as the mandated electricity DSO representative organisation.
In its 2024 work plan the DSO Entity highlighted this gas DSO integration as one of its major tasks for the year.
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The organisation has now reported that its Board has recently discussed and approved the project structure to work on this, including a working structure with various task forces and a sounding committee at the Board level.
The task forces are already composed and now plan to work jointly with experts from the four gas DSO associations, i.e. Eurogas, GD4S, Geode and Cedec, to prepare proposals and options.
Final decision-making will run through the usual procedures at the level of the Board and General Assembly of DSO Entity after having received ACER and European Commission’s opinions on the draft statutes.
The aim is to launch the integration in Q4/2025.
European Network of Network Operators for Hydrogen (ENNOH)
While the DSO Entity will serve as the single mandated organisation for DSOs, the TSO organisations will remain separate and include the existing ENTSO-E for electricity and ENTSOG for gas and the new ENNOH for hydrogen.
The formation of the ENNOH was kicked off on 23 January 2024 with a meeting of 36 infrastructure operators to discuss statutes and initiate the foundational process.
Among these are hydrogen project of common interest project promoters, European Hydrogen Backbone initiative members and other designated operators, while two member states, Malta and Cyprus, joined later.
Moderating the process is Pieter van Aartsen, statutory director of Hynetwork, the Dutch HTNO.
These operators are currently working to set up the ENNOH with a 1 September deadline to submit draft statutes and rules of procedure and a list of members to the European Commission and ACER.
The ENNOH should then be formally established with their adoption and publication due within the first half of 2025 and no later than 1 July 2025.
The main mission of the ENNOH is to promote the development and proper functioning of the internal market for hydrogen and cross-border trade.
Its work will include developing network codes and technical recommendations on multiple topics, such as hydrogen quality monitoring and leak detection best practices, as well as elaborating the ten-year network development plans and their associated developments.
In this, the ENNOH will cooperate closely with ENTSO-E and ENTSOG on identifying synergies and fostering system integration in order to facilitate overall energy system efficiency.
