The negative opinion was presented to the Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE) during the public consultation, as the association believes that Portugal should phase out the fossil natural gas network instead of investing in it as outlined in the document, known as the Indicative Ten-Year Development and Investment Plan for the National Transport Network, Storage Infrastructure, and LNG Terminals (PDIRG 2025).
“The PDIRG 2025, as currently presented, is not aligned with the national and European decarbonization trajectory, disregards the principles of sufficiency and energy efficiency, and risks perpetuating obsolete fossil gas infrastructure, diverting resources that should be allocated to genuinely sustainable energy solutions,” Zero stated in a press release today.
The PDIRG 2025 focuses on blending hydrogen with fossil gas (natural gas) and plans investments over 111 million euros to adapt the gas transport network (RNTG) and underground storage for blends of up to 10% hydrogen by volume.
Zero views this option as an attempt to maintain the current gas network as a central component of the energy system, lacking economic and technical rationality, and “explicitly discouraged by the new European legislative framework,” as ERSE itself has released.
Injecting green hydrogen into the network, consuming significant amounts of renewable energy, represents “a short-term and technologically outdated model,” according to the association, which advocates for decentralized production of hydrogen or methane to reduce transport costs and avoid investments in large networks.
Zero argues that green hydrogen should be utilized in sectors that are hard to electrify, such as maritime transport, aviation, and parts of heavy industry, rather than for residential or general use through the existing gas network.
It is urgent to plan for the end of the RNTG, so that it is entirely closed “by the mid-2040s,” Zero insists.
“With the progressive electrification of consumption and the already significant reduction in gas consumption in Europe and Portugal, there is no economic, environmental, or strategic justification for continuing to expand or extend the lifecycle of large fossil gas infrastructures,” Zero notes.
Therefore, investing in the LNG Terminal in Sines is inconsistent with the decarbonization trajectory, misaligned with climate goals, and poses a high risk of creating investments without return, Zero adds in the statement.
