The Association of Swiss electric utilities, Verband Schweizerischer Elektrizitätsunternehmen (VSE), today published an article in which Christoph Riechmann and David Bothe of Frontier (Europe) consider the role of the power-to-gas technology for European and Swiss energy and climate policy.

The authors point out that the energy and climate change policies requires an increasing use of renewable energies in electricity production and an increasing electrification of the transport and heat sector. Power demand will rise and exhibit stronger seasonal fluctuations with particularly high heat demand in winter, creating multiple challenges to adapt the existing energy infrastructure (particularly network and storage).

While the power-to-gas technology will not fully replace the electrification of energy applications, it can however provide a meaningful contribution to the energy supply mix: the existing gas infrastructure can be used to transport and seasonally store large amounts of green energy which helps avoid certain investments into new electricity grids.

Frontier (Europe) regularly advises public and private sector clients on issues relating to energy and climate policy.

For more information, please contact Miriam Rau (m.rau@frontier-economics.com, +49 221 337 130).