Press Release 

Brussels, 10 December 

The European Commission’s Grids Package, published today, puts energy infrastructure at the core of the transition towards more affordable energy necessary to boosting European business and supporting the implementation of the Commission’s Action Plan for Affordable Energy.

For hydrogen, the Grids Package addresses three core aspects of energy infrastructure:  

1. Funding mechanisms for derisking critical cross-border infrastructure: The Commission recognises the need to develop instruments that distribute the risks between public and private actors, and allocate the costs over time, until there is a sufficient customers base to cover infrastructure costs. The industry has been tasked with bringing forward concrete proposals ahead of the 2026 Energy Infrastructure Forum. Hydrogen Europe welcomes this development and stands ready to contribute. 

2. Accelerated deployment through streamlined permitting: The Package, through its Directive on Accelerating Permitting, clearly targets hydrogen infrastructure to streamline the administrative processes. However, the hydrogen backbone is not set to receive the same support that electricity grids do, and hydrogen storage is explicitly excluded from accelerated permitting and simplified processes, presenting a significant barrier for projects characterised by a very long development timeline.  

2. Integrated planning and better system integration: With the proposed changes to the Ten Year Network Development (TYNPD) process, there is a renewed intention to put sector integration and integrated planning at the heart of the European infrastructure ambition. While the European Network of Network Operators for Hydrogen (ENNOH) is now on equal footing with the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSOE) when elaborating infrastructure needs report, it is still absent from the process of defining the Offshore Network Development Plans (which includes hydrogen infrastructure goals and plans).  

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO of Hydrogen Europe, commented: “With the right infrastructure in place, hydrogen will help reduce renewable energy curtailment and deal with variable demand, providing the flexibility the system critically need. But hydrogen flexibility can only be unlocked once hydrogen grids and storage sites are made available to the market. This is why we welcome the Commissions focus on integrated system planning and efforts to improve the time to market. In a truly decarbonised system, two infrastructures are cheaper than one.’’ 

Implementing and further developing the proposed measures will contribute to significant gains in terms of European welfare and growth, energy security, increased share of homegrown clean energy, and resilience. Hydrogen infrastructure remains a key pillar of the energy strategy, reducing the overall system cost and ensuring all industrial users access to decarbonised energy. 

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For more info: 

• Grids Package: Commission press release 

• Hydrogen Europe paper on energy resilience