EU Projects of Common Interest to Change BEMIP Gas Markets

If implemented, the 15 European Commission’s projects in the BEMIP region would ‘significantly change the picture of the gas markets in the region,’ reads the second Gas Regional Investment Plan (GRIP) of the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (BEMIP) region released on Monday.

‘For the countries in the region that rely, either fully or to a large extent, on a single supplier this would be a major shift, bringing from one side more choices and opportunities for the gas market players, and from another side requiring adequate changes in legislation and commercial practices of gas companies to accommodate an increased market complexity.’ 

According to the report prepared by Transmission System Operators (TSO) of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden, some of the ‘projects of common interest’ would interconnect currently separate sub-regions and increase access to LNG markets.

‘With respect to the role of the gas in energy market, the expected paths differ with- in the region – despite that the total gas demand is expected to increase by 33% in 2023 compared to 2014 when average daily demand will be at the level of 870 GWh. The increase is mainly driven by expected soaring demand in the biggest market of the region – Poland which forecasts decreasing coal-fired power production.’

On the other hand, the seven TSOs see a drop in gas demand from Denmark and Lithuania given the increasing share of renewables in the energy mix