Future Economic Efficiency of Gas Distribution Grids

One crucial aspect to evaluate different options for sector coupling technologies is the future development of the energy infrastructure with its long operating lifetime and renovation cycles. On the one hand, gas demand in Germany is slightly decreasing during the last years and with necessary renovation rates, efficiency measures, as well as an upcoming electrification, a further decrease is certain. On the other hand, the use of Combined heat and power (CHP) is spreading particularly to provide heat to larger building complexes and power-to-gas is foreseen to be needed for seasonal storage of renewable energies. In this paper, these future aspects and their impact on the economic efficiency of gas distribution grids in Germany are investigated. With the benchmark gas distribution network as a reference, the future development is analyzed in three scenarios: Efficiency, electrification and renewable gas only. It is shown, that under certain circumstances parts of the distribution grid should be shut down, to prevent grid charges from rising.