Publication of the first investment plan GTS

On October 1, GTS published  its first investment plan, the IP2020.

The investment plan describes GTS's investments in the short and long term. Until now, GTS did this in the Quality and Capacity Document. The investment plan is assessed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and the ACM before GTS proceeds to final publication and is used to substantiate the usefulness and necessity of the investments.

The IP2020 describes the developments in the energy market, including an analysis in the form of scenarios up to 2030. Subsequently, a bottleneck analysis of the network is performed and a description is given of the investments in the transport network.

The IP2020 also takes into account the most important developments in the Dutch energy market. A major change is that gas extraction from the Groningen field has already been greatly reduced and will be completely phased out in the coming years. Because demand for natural gas will remain at a similar level during this period, the Netherlands is rapidly changing from a major exporter to a major importer of natural gas. In the investment plan, GTS has examined whether there are sufficient possibilities to import more gas to the Netherlands. We also draw attention to the importance of having sufficient storage facilities in the Netherlands to guarantee security of supply. And what opportunities market integration offers.

In addition, speed is of the essence to achieve the climate goals. Our network can play an important role in this, for example by the transport of hydrogen and green gas through our pipelines. As agreed in the Climate Agreement, the supply of these sustainable molecules will have to grow sharply towards 2030 and a national infrastructure will have to be developed to connect supply and demand. Our assets can form the basis for this infrastructure.

From now on, GTS will publish a new investment plan every two years. We will publish the next draft investment plan, the draft IP2022, on 1 January 2022.

The IP2020 is available here.