Gas infrastructure is an essential part of the future energy system, enabling the implementation of both existing and innovative carbon neutral gas technologies. The TYNDP 2022 provides a view of the future gas infrastructure developments, while also taking into consideration the ongoing decarbonisation efforts and a need to reduce Russian gas supply dependence.

The work on this TYNDP started in 2021, more than two years ago. Since then, rapid changes in the European gas market have occurred and the increased hydrogen ambitions of many countries and commercial players were observed, causing sudden announcements of new projects.

It should therefore be noted that this infrastructure report cannot reflect all latest developments even at its publication date, while multiple major developments of 2022 could be captured.

Already in the previous TYDNP edition, ENTSOG introduced a new project infrastructure category for Energy Transition Projects. In response to the EU Green Deal and the revision process of the TEN-E Regulation (EU) 2022/869, ENTSOG decided to further update this category by substituting it by four new categories to provide additional insights, including development trends.

Renewable and low-carbon hydrogen will be key to decarbonise the hard-to-abate sector in the next years. The role of biomethane and hydrogen is thereby expected to gain further relevance.

For TYNDP 2022, an initial project submission took place between 18 October and 12 November 2021. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the commencement of new infrastructure initiatives to reduce the European dependence on Russian gas supply (including those outlined in the REPowerEU Plan), ENTSOG exceptionally re-opened the project collection process with the purpose of including relevant projects that were now being considered in light of security of supply needs. Between 30 May and 24 June 2022, project promoters had the opportunity to submit new projects aiming to both strengthen Europe’s security of supply and ­contributing to the energy transition, as well as offering project promoters the opportunity to update already existing projects with the latest available information. The project information as reported in Annex A and the TYNDP 2022 maps are reflecting therefore the status of the projects during the end of the project collection phase for TYNDP 2022.

In addition to the above-mentioned TYNDP project collection phases, hydrogen infrastructure projects have been complemented in a final call between 18 October and 15 December 2022. This collection was necessary to allow for updates or submissions of PCI candidates under the revised TEN-E Regulation.

Projects submitted to the TYNDP 2022 have different levels of maturity and their inclusion in the ­TYNDP does not make their development legally binding and should not be interpreted as an endorsement by ENTSOG or an EU body.

Submitted projects have to comply with specific administrative and technical criteria for their inclusion in the TYNDP, as defined in the ­“ENTSOG Practical implementation document (PID) for developing the 10-year network development plan 2022”¹. This document follows the European ­Commission’s recommendation on “Guidelines on equal treatment and transparency criteria to be applied by ENTSO-E and ENTSOG when ­developing their TYNDPs”, as set out in Annex III.2 (5) of ­Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 (TEN-E)².

Since this TYNDP 2022 was developed in a transition period of the TEN-E Regulation, anticipated changes were taken into account as much as possible. The PID was consulted in a dedicated workshop on 2 June 2021.