Gas TSOs of Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania have carried out a joint cross-border public procurement procedure for the preparation of a Project Plan that will provide a basis for the TSOs to carry out a procurement for a R&D project regarding hydrogen blending possibilities in the Estonian, Finnish, Latvian and Lithuanian gas transmission systems and the investigation of necessary investments according to different hydrogen blending volumes.

 

On 13th of October the agreement to prepare a Project Plan was signed with the procurement winner GRTGaz’s dedicated Research & Innovation Center for Energy (RICE).

 

Considering the EU decarbonisation course and fulfilling the TSOs responsibility towards the market to guarantee the system integrity and interoperability, the TSOs have jointly decided to carry out a coordinated research and development project “Evaluation of technical capabilities of the natural gas transmission systems of Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania for injection and transportation of hydrogen and estimation of required retrofitting measures and investments”.

 

RICE will use a scenario approach with various potential hydrogen concentration levels. The prepared Project Plan shall identify a methodology for defining retrofitting requirements for each scenario and each national system. In addition, the Project Plan shall define principles of estimating required investments per system and hydrogen concentration scenario. 

 

TSOs are responsible for ensuring safe and secure operation and maintenance of the existing infrastructure. To ensure the adaptation of gas networks for blending of methane and hydrogen, TSOs must avoid potential adverse effects of hydrogen injection, and potential damage that may occur during usage of the infrastructure. Timely measures to prevent infrastructure damage and system security threats will be introduced.

The Project Plan is expected to be finished in December, 2021.