New developments in preparation for hydrogen transportation

2024. 12. 12.

Several important events have occurred in the past week regarding future hydrogen transportation. At the beginning of the week, the Ministry of Energy provisionally designated our company as the Hydrogen Transportation Network Operator (HTNO) of Hungary. Additionally, future HTNOs agreed on the conditions of cooperation until the establishment of ENNOH (pre-ENNOH), the European Network of Network Operators for Hydrogen, during which our President and CEO, Ferencz I. Szabolcs, was elected as the Vice President representing the Central-Southern-Eastern European region on the Board of Directors of pre-ENNOH.

Since January this year, FGSZ has been actively participating in the work within the framework of the establishment of ENNOH and the cooperation. As of December 9, based on the decision of the Ministry of Energy, we have been provisionally designated as the domestic HTNO.

With the establishment of ENNOH, the future HTNOs will jointly shape the internal market and cross-border commercial operations of hydrogen, as well as the optimal management, coordinated operation, and reliable technical development of Europe's future hydrogen transportation network. The common goal of hydrogen transportation companies is to create the conditions for hydrogen transportation until the hydrogen market is realized and supply-demand balance is achieved, and to develop an integrated market model and guidelines for repurposing the existing infrastructure. At the pre-ENNOH meeting, they agreed on the structure that will guide future activities and on the preparatory work necessary for ENNOH to timely fulfill the regulatory tasks assigned by the Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Market Package for 2025 and 2026.

At the pre-ENNOH General Assembly on Wednesday, the Chairman-CEO of FGSZ, Ferencz I. Szabolcs, was elected as a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President representing the Central-Southern-Eastern European region (the organization covers the entire EU, and each region is represented based on fair regional distribution). Furthermore, the 9 TSOs of the Central-Southern-Eastern European region (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) signed a cooperation agreement on the division of tasks within pre-ENNOH and the rotation of the Board of Directors.