ENTSOG GRIP SNC 2014-2023

As witnessed by the comparison of power generation landscapes in the countries of the Region (following sections from 3.1.1 to 3.1.5), the current levels of gas prices compared to other sources (especially coal), combined with incentives granted to RES, make it very hard for gas power plants to stay competitive. The number of func- tioning hours has progressively reduced in the last few years and this has negatively affected the gas demand for power generation. This negative trend, also worsened by the economic crisis effects, should be hope- fully inverted in the next years thanks to the implementation of positive elements such as: \\ a more effective EU Emissions Trading Scheme, destined to correctly pricing negative coal environmental impacts; \\ a rescaling of subsidies for RES technologies in accordance with their maturity, possibly complemented by the use of freed-up resources for capacity remuner­ ation measures, targeted to those gas-fired plants needed to back up renewa- bles sources. The above mentioned initiatives could help to explain the only apparent discrepan- cy between historically observed decreasing figures and the positive forecasts included in this section. While the demand for power generation is expected to grow from 550,000GWh/y in 2013 to 710,000GWh/y in 2023, other types of gas demand are expected to shrink from about 1,800,000GWh/y in 2013 to about 1,700,000GWh/y in 2023. This leads to a growth of the share of gas used for power generation from 23% to 30%, showing an expected leading role for gas in this domain. The rationales be- hind this expectation are further elaborated in the following sections of this Chapter.

Image courtesy of Snam Rete Gas

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South-North Corridor GRIP 2014–2023