Ljubljana, 3 February 2025
The EU’s Hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package (2024) aims to support the development of a competitive hydrogen market and the integration of renewable gases into Europe’s energy system. To achieve this, the package extends the role of ACER to include new hydrogen-related tasks.
One of these tasks, set out in the Regulation on hydrogen and decarbonised gas market, requires ACER to issue a recommendation on the methodologies for setting the inter-temporal cost allocation by 5 August 2025 and update it at least every two years.
To inform the drafting of this recommendation, ACER will seek stakeholder input through a public consultation from 10 to 31 March 2025.
What is inter-temporal cost allocation?
Developing a European hydrogen market will require significant infrastructure investment to transport hydrogen from supply sites to end users. However, funding this infrastructure through traditional regulated tariffs (fees paid by network users) could result in extremely high fees for early users, making hydrogen less affordable and potentially discouraging further demand.
To address this issue, the Regulation on hydrogen and decarbonised gas market grants Member States the authority to allow hydrogen network operators to recover infrastructure costs over time through inter-temporal cost allocation mechanisms. These aim to ensure a fair distribution of costs between early and future hydrogen consumers, ensuring that the former are not disproportionately burdened.
ACER’s recommendation will provide guidance to Transmission System Operators (TSOs), Distribution System Operators (DSOs), hydrogen network operators, and National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) on how to develop and implement these mechanisms effectively.
Source – ACER: Read more.