Germany’s gas TSOs propose €19.7bn hydrogen core network

Germany’s gas TSOs have submitted an application for a 9,666km national hydrogen core network with an expected investment cost of €19.7 billion ($21.4 billion).

The hydrogen core network is intended to mark the start of the development of a Germany-wide hydrogen infrastructure and to accelerate the ramp-up for hydrogen by 2032.

In turn, this should become an essential component of the proposed future European hydrogen backbone of hydrogen infrastructure extending across the region.

The future German hydrogen core network is proposed to contain important hydrogen infrastructures that would be successively put into operation by 2032.

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These include the routes for the transmission of hydrogen along with the proposed future hydrogen production and storage and consumption sites, which will take in the large industrial centres and power generation plants.

In total, the application from the 15 TSO applicants provides for a pipeline length of 9,666km, of which around 60% would be conversions of existing natural gas pipelines.

Klaus Müller, President of the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), said the Agency is now examining the network proposals to confirm they meet with the legal requirements with all the necessary interconnections in place – a process that is anticipated to be completed within two months.

“On the basis of approval by the Federal Network Agency, the construction of the hydrogen core network will begin.”

EnBW plans

One of the gas TSOs, EnBW, has indicated its intention to invest an initial amount of around €1 billion towards the development and expansion of the national hydrogen core network.

As part of the joint TSO application, EnBW subsidiary terranets bw and VNG/ONTRAS Gastransport have included commitments for both existing pipeline conversions and new connections to connect Baden-Württemberg and large parts of eastern and central Germany to the hydrogen core network.

Specifically, EnBW has assured through terranets bw that the South German natural gas pipeline, currently under construction, will be integrated into the hydrogen core network.

After its completion, the hydrogen-capable pipeline should supply consumers in Baden-Württemberg initially with natural gas and later with hydrogen. These include the hydrogen-capable gas-fired power plants in Heilbronn, Altbach/Deizisau and Stuttgart-Münster.

Other possible projects include transport pipelines to Upper Swabia and Lake Constance as well as a cross-border connection from France to Breisgau.

VNG subsidiary ONTRAS intends to implement hydrogen transport pipelines in central Germany, thus connecting the Leipzig region with the Central German chemical triangle, the industrial centres in Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, the Berlin area and the Meissen industrial arc.

Other possible projects are the connection south of Berlin via Eisenhüttenstadt to Poland to Lusatia, the line south of Rostock to Glasewitz and other connecting pipelines.

Welcoming the proposals, Dirk Güsewell, EnBW board member, said: "The hydrogen core network is the entry point into the hydrogen economy of the future. The development of an efficient hydrogen infrastructure will not happen overnight and it will only be possible gradually, both technically and economically.”