German Federal Network Agency aligns gas network development planning with the future

The gas transmission system operators (TSOs) submitted the draft scenario framework for the Gas Network Development Plan 2022 – 2032 to the German Federal Network Agency on August 16, 2021. Today, as part of its confirmation, the German Federal Network Agency obliged, among other things, the TSOs to:

develop a concept for how the requirements of the Federal Climate Protection Act, in particular the net greenhouse gas neutrality prescribed for 2045, can be taken into account in future as part of network development planning,
to examine the use of market-based instruments (MBI) in an additional modeling variant “MBI base variant” as an alternative to grid expansion, which was determined in the base variant, and
provide the German Federal Network Agency with detailed information on the peak load case considered in the network development plan within the framework of the power balances of the base variant and, in doing so, to provide information on the respective assumed services for each individual network point (border crossing, distribution system operator, storage, power plants, industry, LNG terminal, production, biogas feed-in, hydrogen feed-in).

Sebastian Bleschke, Managing Director of the Initiative Energien Speichern e.V. (INES), comments on the confirmation of the scenario framework with the following words: “With the commitments made as part of the conformation of the scenario framework, the German Federal Network Agency is further aligning network development planning for gas with the future. It is strengthening transparency by providing a more detailed presentation of the peak load relevant for network design. In addition, with the modeling variant ‘MBI base variant’ it creates the possibility to systematically reduce conventional network expansion through market-based measures. As the energy transition progresses, the use of gas grids will also decrease. MBI can avoid investments in gas grids today that will no longer be used in the future.”

The confirmation of the German Federal Network Agency is available at this link: confirmation of the scenario framework for the Gas Network Development Plan 2022- 2032 (bundesnetzagentur.de)

Presse-Statement auf Deutsch lesen / Read Press Statement in German