Plans for German hydrogen core network gain ground

Transmission system operators (TSOs) have submitted the official application for the development of the German hydrogen core network to the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA).

FNB Gas, the association of supra-regional gas transmission companies in Germany, submitted the joint application on July 22, 2024.

The total length of the optimized core grid according to the application is 9,666 kilometers. Of this, 802 kilometers is accounted for by pipelines from 16 other potential hydrogen network operators (distribution network operators).

The core network consists mainly of converted natural gas pipelines (approximately 60%), and the investment costs amount to €19.7 billion. The feed-in and feed-out capacities amount to around 100 GW and 87 GW respectively.

FNB Gas said the core grid meets the targets set out in the EnWG for a “Germany-wide, expandable, efficient, climate-friendly and rapidly realizable hydrogen grid” by the target year 2032. Furthermore, to create more flexibility in the implementation of the projects, the EnWG provides for the possibility of deferring individual approved core grid measures if certain measures only prove necessary at a later date up to 2037, FNB Gas noted.

Thomas Gößmann, Chairman of the Board at FNB Gas, commented: “With the core network, we are creating a central prerequisite for the successful hydrogen ramp-up in Germany and thus for the decarbonization of industry and energy supply. It gives market participants the security they need to invest in the hydrogen economy and the transformation to climate neutrality. The hydrogen ramp-up is now a joint task for all market participants.”

BNetzA is expected to approve the core network no later than two months after the submission of the application documents. Following approval, the TSOs will begin to build the core network. The first lines are to be converted to hydrogen as early as next year.

According to FNB Gas, the BNetzA will set the ramp-up fee in the second half of 2024. In addition, the contractual arrangements for the provision and financing of the amortization account for the construction of the hydrogen core network still have to be drawn up.

Regulations also still need to be developed with regard to a market model for hydrogen, including the marketing of transport capacities, FNB Gas said, pointing out that future market roles such as storage, particularly in the market ramp-up phase, have not yet been clarified.

“For the market ramp-up to succeed overall, it is important that policymakers create reliable framework conditions for the hydrogen ramp-up on the generation and demand side. Another focus is on the further development of the core network in order to take additional requirements and locations into account as part of integrated network development planning for gas and hydrogen (stage 2). The transformation of the distribution grids is also important for this in order to develop an area-wide hydrogen grid,” FNB Gas concluded.

To remind, in a bid to have a country-wide efficient hydrogen infrastructure network by 2032, Germany’s federal cabinet passed a draft law that provides regulations for financing the core network in November 2023. At the same time, TSOs submitted the draft application to the BNetzA and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK).