| CEER Status Review on Regulatory Frameworks for Innovation in Gas Transmission Infrastructure 21 December 2020 Today, CEER publishes its Status Review Report on Regulatory Frameworks for Innovation in Gas Transmission Infrastructure. This follows on the 2019 Energy Infrastructure Forum, which invited National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to review their regulatory practice regarding innovation in light of the recommendations of a consultancy study. CEER/NRAs were invited to present a progress report on the regulatory practices at the next Forum, of which this one focuses on the gas sector. The preliminary findings of the report were presented at the 2020 Energy Infrastructure Forum. This report finds that there is a lack of formal definitions for innovation in legislative or regulatory frameworks. Nevertheless, there seems to be a broad common understanding of security of supply. CEER found that innovation is mostly correlated to the concepts of carbon neutrality (e.g. injection of non-conventional gases into the grid), sector coupling (e.g. Power-to-Gas, P2G) and digitalisation (e.g. smart metering). The report also identifies that innovation in gas transmission is mostly promoted indirectly via the general regulatory framework and/or via specific features regarding incentives for network performance (output-based regulation). Following the identification of several legislative barriers to innovation in some countries, such as the lack of NRA powers to implement certain decisions regarding tariffs; and the lack of NRA powers/duties to consult the network development plan and to approve it, European energy regulators recommend that: - It is essential to provide NRAs with sufficient leverage and regulatory control over tariff setting; and
- NRAs should be empowered to approve and to amend the national transmission network development plans.
Please read the full report here. | 
