Germany's economy ministry is working on a law reform that would enable local utilities to shut down gas grids and cut off consumers from gas supplies, Clean Energy Wire reports.
Currently, utilities in Germany are obliged to connect customers seeking gas supplies to the grid and cannot cut existing connections.
The amendment would allow utilities to disconnect users from the gas grid if they do not see a future for the infrastructure, even without the consent of the end consumer, the economy ministry said in the draft law. Under the proposal, utilities would need to draft so-called network development plans for their gas grids, detailing how they plan to repurpose or decommission them, and inform consumers years in advance about plans to disconnect them.
The network development plans should be drawn up as soon as a permanent reduction in gas demand is expected within the following 10 years, which would make the conversion or the decommissioning necessary. The plans would form the legal basis for the conversion to green gases such as hydrogen or biogas, or decommissioning. Utilities would need to inform consumers about their alternative options for heating and available subsidies.
Moreover, the law reform stipulates that long-term gas supply contracts may not have a duration beyond the end of 2049, with the exception of contracts that can guarantee carbon capture and storage (CCS).
As Germany nears its 2045 net-zero deadline, fossil gas will have to be largely phased out. At present, however, fossil fuels continue to dominate the heating market for existing buildings in the country. Theoretically, Germany's gas grid could be repurposed to carry fuels that are considered climate-neutral, such as biogas or hydrogen. But these are expected to be prohibitively expensive and inefficient when it comes to heating buildings. Think tank Agora Energiewende therefore anticipates the net-zero transition to render more than 90% of the country's distribution gas grid useless.
Local utilities are struggling to develop plans to decommission or repurpose their networks of gas pipelines, a recent survey by utility association VKU found. The association said a lack of rules governing the phaseout of gas grids or their conversion, as well as the question of who pays, remain major obstacles for utilities to make plans. Local utilities today generate much of their revenue from their gas systems.
In an ideal situation, utilities would decommission gas grids neighbourhood by neighbourhood, the head of local utility MVV Energie, Gabril Clemens, told Clean Energy Wire earlier this year. That way, it could steadily reduce its maintenance costs and minimize households' grid fees.
But that would only be possible if all the households in a neighbourhood decided to get off gas around the same time. Otherwise, utilities would have to maintain the entire gas grid just to keep a few households warm-with the running costs falling in fewer hands.
So social protection mechanisms and legal frameworks would be needed to ensure a few households do not bear the whole cost or prevent entire sections of the grid from shutting down.
Large German cities have until mid-2026 to present their municipal heating plans, detailing where and by when different kinds of heating systems, such as district heating networks, will be available.
The EU has given member states until August 2026 to introduce plans to legislate the decommissioning of gas grids. The directive states that, if countries choose to phase out gas to achieve climate targets, it should be possible for them to refuse access to or disconnect users from infrastructure that will be decommissioned-though affected users should be adequately protected.
Source: The Energy Mix
