The economic forum Wake Up, Spain! organised by El Español, Invertia and D+I (Disruptores e Innovadores) took place between March 27 and 31, and was inaugurated by the First Vice-President of the Government and Minister for the Economy and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño.
On 28 March, Enagás CEO Arturo Gonzalo took part in a conversation with the energy editor of El Español-Invertia, Laura Ojea. The event focused on energy and technology, was opened by the Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen, and was attended by other leaders from energy, technology and transport companies.
With regard to the security of energy supply in Spain and Europe this year and next winter, the Enagás CEO explained that “we are in a situation of greater confidence than we could have imagined a year ago. The filling level of Spanish underground storage facilities is more than 76%”. He also highlighted Spain’s differential contribution to Europe, with historic record gas exports through France in 2022, and pointed out that “today and in recent days we are exporting more gas to France than we receive from Algeria through the Medgaz”, due to the strike that is keeping three of the four regasification plants in the country out of operation.
With regard to renewable hydrogen and the H2MED corridor, the CEO of Enagás stated that “Spain has an enormous opportunity and we must all make an effort to seize it, because it can transform our country”. He recalled that once the PNIEC update is published by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Enagás will launch the calls for interest for the Spanish hydrogen backbone network axes, which will identify who will be the major customers and suppliers of this backbone network.
In addition, he highlighted that the company has already launched the System of Guarantees of Origin for renewable gases, which is a milestone for the development of hydrogen and biomethane in Spain.
Enagás’ CEO stressed that Europe is accelerating its commitment to renewable hydrogen, and mentioned as an example of this, the announcement that the European Hydrogen Bank will be operational in 2023, will mobilise at least 3,000 million euros of European funds and will start with an bid of 800 million euros. “I believe that Europe is clear about this and that our country has to take advantage of the opportunity of the European Hydrogen Bank bids so that our projects are the first in this line of support”. Furthermore, he emphasised that “no one like Spain can competitively produce renewable hydrogen on the scale we can”.
Arturo Gonzalo added that in its communiqué on the European Hydrogen Bank, the European Commission has already provided a first vision of what the necessary investment in hydrogen transport and storage infrastructures could entail, and that it is fully in line with what is foreseen for the Spanish hydrogen backbone, he concluded.
