ENTSOG GRIP SNC 2014-2023

Executive Summary

This second edition of the South-North Corridor Gas Regional Investment Plan takes advantage from an enlargement of the Region, now spanning from Italy to Belgium and crossing the backbone of the European continent along Switzerland, Germany and France. The geographical expansion has been combined with a higher level of contents, measured as amount of in- formation published and, more significantly, in terms of quality of the analyses presented. The improvement of EU security of supply and market integration is linked to the expansion of infrastructure aimed at interconnecting markets, countries and gas corridors in flexible ways, commercially effective and physically reliable. In consid- eration of its position, at the heart of the European Union and at the crossroads of the major current and future gas import routes, the Region is vital for the creation of the internal gas market, as witnessed also by the Project of Common Interests affecting this area, among them the South-North Corridor projects. The already considerable Regional infrastructure base, together with its expected developments and modernization, is destined to increase the role of the Region in bridging priority gas corridors and building a competitive and secure European internal gas market. The existing and expected assets in the Region are thoroughly assessed in the Report. It presents an exhaustive overview of the overall planned gas infrastructure, with a special focus on the South-North Corridor projects, being at the core of the Region and playing a key-role for the future evolution of European demand and supply patterns. The rationales and the benefits of the South-North Corridor projects are further explored in the document and the possibility to follow the whole route evolution has been ensured adopting an Interconnection Point approach, as already done in the first edition of the Report. Other initiatives with a Regional relevance, gathered according to the involved countries and relevant associated TSOs, have been reported following a project- based description of their main features. Finally, a specific chapter has been destined in this South-North Corridor GRIP to the forward-looking perspectives for natural gas. This effort has been done on one side by highlighting the fundamental supply trends in the Region, with a particular focus to the depletion of Northern European reserves, and on the other hand by sustaining the evidences that natural gas is actually the best-placed fuel to back-up renewable energy sources, complementing their intermittent nature in the most sustainable way.

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