The Central European Gas Hub (CEGH) launched its GreenGas Platform for green gases such as biomethane and green hydrogen in Austria with gradual expansion planned to Central and Eastern Europe.
Biomethane is a flexible energy carrier that can be used for various application purposes, such as green electricity generation, renewable gas for heating and cooling and as a sustainable biofuel in the transport sector. To standardise the trading processes of biomethane and specifically biomethane certificates, match-making platforms (Blackboard, Bulletin Board, Dashboard) are being developed as part of the national/European gas market. The establishment of CEGH Greengas Trading, which was launched by Central European Gas Hub AG in the beginning of April 2022, is a special occasionenabling trading of biomethane, specifically biomethane certificates, and thus supporting the decarbonisation of the gas markets.
REGATRACE dealt with a design study and technical specifications for a dashboard and trading platform (including transfer of ownership) in a comprehensive project report. The economic objective of a trading platform is to provide a liquid marketplace where a high number of market participants can execute trades. The product definition of tradable certificates is a prerequisite for the liquidity of a renewable gas market, whereby certificate trading can take different forms, such as ex-post or future products. The more standardised products with the same product definition are available, the more liquid the market will be. Technical details such as functional and non-functional requirements, IT requirements for interfaces between trading platforms and registries as well as design of the IT system can be found in the public project report (link).
Central European Gas Hub AG, CEGH for short, a company of OMV, Wiener Börse AG and the Slovak gas network operator Eustream, a.s., is the largest gas trading hub in Central and Eastern Europe with a total trading volume of 749 TWh in 2021 – nine times Austria’s annual gas consumption.
The CEGH GreenGas Platform is a marketplace for biomethane supply and demand. As soon as green hydrogen is available on the market, it will also be tradable on the platform. The platform enables the purchase or sale of biomethane with or without certificates. The matching of master data is practically done via the Biomethane Register Austria, operated by AGCS Gas Clearing and Settlement AG, to assure the authenticity of the market participants and their corresponding biomethane certificates. For this purpose, AGCS issues confirmations of participation to market participants upon request.
In addition to a bulletin board, the CEGH GreenGas Trading Platform will also provide auctions. This is the first time that suppliers and buyers are offered a common marketplace through which the processing and administration of trading is greatly simplified and presented in a transparent manner.
The CEGH GreenGas Platform will gradually be extended to green gas trading in Central and Eastern European countries to promote cross-border and international trading. It is offered in two languages, German and English, and participation is free of charge.
Gottfried Steiner, CEGH CEO: “With the CEGH GreenGas Platform we enable trading of green gases for the first time. Currently there is no functioning trade and no platform. In order to achieve the ambitious energy and climate targets, transparency and liquidity on a trading platform are necessary. We want to actively promote this and see ourselves as the ideal partner for industry and suppliers for the expansion of green gases.”
Stefanie Königsberger, AGCS Project Manager Greening-the-Gas: “For the national and European biomethane market to take off, not only production must be expanded, but also clear, common greening-the-gas strategies and legally binding, long-term targets must be introduced. Furthermore, trading platforms will increase market transparency and significantly simplify organisational processes, which will support the transition of the energy sector towards renewable energy sources and increase confidence in the pan-European biomethane market. The establishment of the CEGH GreenGas Platform is therefore a very welcome step towards a harmonised green gas market. CEGH as a recognised and central body in the European energy market thus supports biomethane as an existing part of the European energy market.”