Energy transition? Europe is not dogmatic, says Proxigas
What Marta Bucci, general manager of Proxigas, said during a parliamentary hearing
“In recent months we have had confirmation of how essential the energy issue is. How functional energy is to ensure the economic and social development of our states. This is why, with respect to energy issues, our association constitutes a very privileged observatory". These are the words of Marta Bucci, General Manager of Proxigas, during the hearing in the Chamber of Deputies, in the context of the examination of the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on how to apply EU law for a Europe of results.
ENERGY HAS NEVER BEEN SO CENTRAL
The energy sector – especially in the last two years – has found itself having to deal with unpredictable dynamics. The post pandemic in 2021 and the war in Ukraine in February 2022 have made the fragility of the national and European energy system even more evident: on the one hand they have led to an escalation and volatility of prices for companies and households and on the other hand also a slowdown of the global ecological transition path. Climate-changing emissions per unit of GDP have increased worldwide, including Europe.
Proxigas, the reference association in the gas sector , during today's hearing in the Chamber of Deputies, addressed the issue through a broader reflection, starting from the sector's critical issues to arrive at the need to initiate a profound review of European energy policies and the relationship between European legislation and individual national regulatory frameworks.
EUROPE MUST NOT LOCK OUT ANY TECHNOLOGY
“We assumed that we could have access to cheap traditional energy resources, despite the fact that there was a growing demand globally and we hadn't made any kind of investment. At the same time, the complexity of implementing the very challenging and highly articulated energy transition process was underestimated, which must necessarily be able to manage the variability and uncertainties that, up to now, we have not considered and we were not ready to manage. Today it is important to reset European policies, but also national ones. Reset them considering what is our priority: defining an energy transition path that is concretely feasible”, declared Marta Bucci, General Manager of Proxigas, during the hearing in the Chamber of Deputies.
“The Green Deal first, the Fit for 55% package to follow, up to RePowerEu have the objective of leading Europe towards climate neutrality by 2050 and, therefore, with this aim they define the targets for reducing climate-changing emissions and policies for the promotion of alternative sources. But, unfortunately, they also introduce ideological prohibitions. They exclude technologies, vectors, sources and do not take into account the specific situation of the individual Member States. Specificities concerning the energy mix, the development potential of some sources, the decarbonisation potential of the sources that are used, the infrastructural system and the social fabric, which are all essential elements. The success of the ecological transition process and also the real feasibility of this process depend on them. This is why, in our opinion, a new approach to European legislation is needed which goes beyond this logic of exclusivity and which, instead, favors the complementarity and synergy of the various energy sectors“, added Bucci.
PROXIGAS AND “GREEN GASES”
“We have to build a path that enhances the solutions that are already available today and that, at the same time, support technological innovation and industrial development. European legislation should create a context that enables each country to achieve the environmental targets, according to the trajectory and path that best suits its particularities. This by pursuing three fundamental objectives. First of all diversification, not only of routes and flows, but also of energy sources and vectors, making the most of all available resources and technologies, to guarantee a system capable of ensuring energy supplies, regardless of the context in which we find ourselves , in order to support the economic and social development of our country. The second point is to promote the liquidity and, therefore, the efficiency of the energy markets. This, to support the competitiveness of our production system and also offer consumers sustainable prices. Finally, we must safeguard the energy transition path and, therefore, ensure its concrete implementation. This can be done by promoting the development of green gases in synergy with the electricity carrier. Thus offering consumers a set of solutions for decarbonisation that are accessible according to the principles of technological neutrality”, continued the Association.
THE NATIONAL CONTEXT
In terms of energy policy, the General Manager of Proxigas also highlighted how "the ex post interventions – the ones we are facing today to guarantee the security of supplies – are much more expensive than those we could have implemented ex ante. We have also seen how security and price stability are achieved thanks to an abundance of infrastructure and the diversification of energy sources and mixes. It is therefore important that the European dossiers on energy are placed at a regulatory level such as to allow the Member States to effectively implement the related legislation in their own national context".
THE CASE GREEN DIRECTIVE
The Association focuses on the proposal for a European directive on the energy performance of buildings, known as the Green House Directive . In Italy, the EPBD Directive proposal falls within a context that sees a building stock for 60% built before 1977 and for 75.4% in polluting classes (E, F, G). Only 5.5% was built in recent times, between 2016-2021. To achieve the objectives set by the EPBD Directive by 2033, over 200,000 interventions on individual buildings should be completed every year, with a cost that can be between 40 and 60 billion euros a year. This is a greater amount of investment than that made thanks to the application of the so-called Superbonus, which moved 62 billion jobs on around 360 thousand buildings. The energy mix of our country today sees a central role of natural gas for residential consumption: thanks to a widespread and widespread infrastructure of over 300,000 km of network, gas reaches 82% of households and connects 90% of Italian municipalities . The decarbonisation of residential consumption will not be achieved by applying bans but by involving all consumers and offering them sustainable solutions in relation to the different architectural, economic and social contexts. An approach based on the concreteness and feasibility of the interventions is essential. From this point of view, especially for our country, the contribution of the molecular sectors becomes essential and unavoidable and cannot be excluded a priori without considering the significant decarbonization potential that they can express while guaranteeing cost optimization at the same time.
“In Italy gas is fundamental and essential for one's residential consumption and, thanks to a highly developed network of over 300,000 km, it reaches eighty percent of families and connects 90% of our municipalities. This is why – argues Proxigas – when we think about how to decarbonise this sector, we must analyze the context. The objectives of the directive would envisage about 200,000 deep redevelopment interventions a year, with a cost of between 40 and 60 billion euros. Beyond this imposing economic necessity, what we believe must also be considered is the context and, therefore, the limits with respect to the actuality of this path. There are several plans from where to consider. The technical plan, first of all, since it is not always possible to direct the evolution of heating systems towards a single solution and a single technology, that of electrification. Why? Because experience tells us that in recent years electric heat pumps have spread with respect to new buildings, much less on existing buildings. Furthermore, critical issues also arise on an economic and social level, since the final consumer is required to make a significant initial investment, especially for the majority of families and, when it represents the only solution proposed for the energy transition, risks to exclude a large part of end customers, who will opt not to proceed with the replacement of their domestic systems".
WE NEED MORE PRAGMATISM
"The decarbonisation of the heating sector, in order to be implemented concretely and not only to be declined among the expected objectives, must instead take place on the basis of a pragmatic approach that provides for an efficient, effective and just transition, which involves all energy sources capable of to contribute and all final consumers, compatibly with the spending capacity of each. It is necessary to acquire the awareness that it is a hard-to-abbot sector to all intents and purposes, due to the high presence of outdated and inefficient systems and that it is therefore necessary to adopt policies that adequately take reality into account”, underlines Proxigas.
(Article published in Energia Oltre )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/proxigas-transizione-energetica/ on Wed, 05 Apr 2023 05:23:28 +0000.