It is now widely accepted that renewable and decarbonised gases will play an important role in enabling decarbonisation. There may also be a role for injection of alternative gases in distribution grids.

However, the EU regulatory framework at distribution level is not currently well-adapted to enabling their integration.

Working for the European Commission, we prepared a report assessing some potential options for:

• Harmonising EU rules on responsibilities for gas quality measurement and management at distribution level;
• Introducing EU rules governing Citizen Energy Communities (which generally allow for greater citizen participation and engagement in renewable energy production, distribution and retail) in the gas sector;
• EU level requirements for the roll-out of gas smart meters.

For each of the three topics above, we summarised the status quo, list potential issues that could occur with the current framework in place and analysed the costs, benefits and distributional effects associated with the options proposed.

Our report was carried out as the European Commission was preparing legislative proposals for the gas sector, and has since been published by the European Commission.

For more information, please contact us on media@frontier-economics.com  or at +44 (0) 20 7031 7000.