Overview of biomethane markets and regulations ... - Green Gas Grids

total costs for the grid connection. The grid operator has ownership of the grid
connection station and bears the operation costs for compression, odorization, gas
measurements and adjustment of the heating value. Since the grid connection
represents a bottle neck for biomethane injection and is of significant importance
for the profitable operation of the entire plant, a minimum availability of the grid
connection station of 96 % per year must to be guaranteed by the grid operator.
The German Association for Gas and Water (Deutscher Verein des Gas- und
Wasserfaches / DVGW) is in charge of providing technical standards. The gas
quality requirements are stipulated in the technical standards DVGW G260 and
G262. The rules offer the possibility of feeding biomethane as an additional gas,
apart from feeding biomethane as a substitute for natural gas. This implies that
biomethane of different heating value (off-spec) can be fed into the grid as long as
the resulting gas quality is in line with the specifications. This case can be observed
in Pliening, Bavaria where off-spec biomethane is fed into a large transmission
pipeline.
Support schemes
Germany creates a market demand for biomethane by introducing several
incentives, such as
n Feed-in tariffs for renewable electricity,
n Renewable Heat Obligation and
n Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation.
In 2000, the Renewable Energy Act (Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz / EEG) was set
into force, providing regulations for grid access and the remuneration for renewable
energy. Renewable energy has priority access to electricity grid and receives
technology specific feed-in tariffs. The remuneration decreases annually by a
certain percentage in order to consider cost decrease due to the learning curve.
Once the RES production plant begins operation, it receives the same feed-in tariff
for a guaranteed period of 20 years. Germany has a large proportion of black and
brown coal in electricity production, thus the country makes considerable efforts to
reduce its carbon footprint in this sector. The tariff scheme focuses on green
electricity production and also biomethane utilisation is eligible for feed-in tariffs
only when being used for CHP. For CHP operation, 100 % heat utilisation is
mandatory in order to justify the energy consumption for upgrading, injecting and
transport.
The Renewable Energies Heat Act (Erneuerbare Energien-Wärmegesetz /
EEWärmeG) became effective in 2009. It stipulates that 14 % of Germany’s heat
demand (in terms of final energy) is to be sourced from RES. Buildings erected
after 1 st of January 2009 are obliged to employ renewable energies for their heat
supply. When using biogas, the obligation is generally met if 30 % of the heat
energy demand of the respective building is covered, provided that the biogas is
used in CHP. In case the supply is from the gas grid, requirements on the
sustainable production of the biomethane (state of the art technology, emission
control etc.) are to be fulfiled.
The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (Biokraftstoffquotengesetz /
BioKraftQuG), announced in 2006 and introduced in 2007, rules that all suppliers of
vehicle fuel are obliged to admix a minimum percentage of biofuel to vehicle petrol
and diesel fuel. Operators that fail to fulfill this quota have to pay a fine per litre of
fuel for which they fall short of the quota. Thus, refuelling station operators who
exceed the quota, benefit from additional revenues from trading their allowances.
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