What is the future of gas industry? Experts discussed in Modra
5/31/2019
The opening day of GAS MARKET 2019 conference in Modra was dedicated to the future role of natural gas and its legislative position in Slovakia and Europe.
Director General of Energy Section at the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, Ján Petrovič, stated, that natural gas accounts for about 24 % of energy mix in Slovakia. With the help of this source, Slovakia has one of the lowest carbon economies in the EU. „Firstly we want to replace coal by natural gas and to replace it as soon as possible,“ he claimed.
She thinks that the competitiveness of the gas industry will be determined by the transition towards digitalisation. The requirements of this process are supposed to be high-speed communication, smart devices and the processing of real-time data.
Energy Regulatory Office of Czech republic has to consider how to regulate networks with potentially reducing volumes of energy, the adjustment to transition from static to dynamic regulation and how to set up regulation of infrastructure.
The 2020 Gas Package is expected to answer many questions. Its objectives should be defined for the first time in June at the Madrid Forum. Although we do not know yet what will be included in this document, ERÚ thinks it will be reflecting on new trends. The actual content of the 2020 Gas Package was labelled as one of potential risks of the near future by Martin Slabý, Chairman of the Board from the Czech Gas Association.
Malcolm Arthur of European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) also presented at the conference. Although currently we do not know exactly what the European Commission will propose, one of the pillars will be mirroring common topics from the Clean Energy for All Europeans package. These will reflect governance, open and fair retail market, the deployment of smart meters and consumer protection. It is also important to improve functioning of the market. The tariffs of TSOs will be analysed as well. Under this objective, the EC is processing a number of studies to be completes in 2018 and 2019.
You may read more about the first session of the conference at energoklub.sk (in Slovak).