Article 86 Amendments to Regulation (EU) 2022/869

1.   The ENTSO for Electricity and the European Network of Network Operators for Hydrogen (ENNOH) referred to in Article 57 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1789 of the European Parliament and of the Council (*4) shall draft consistent single sector draft methodologies, including the energy network and market model referred to in paragraph 10 of this Article, for a harmonised energy system-wide cost-benefit analysis at Union level for projects on the Union list falling under the energy infrastructure categories set out in point (1)(a), (b), (d) and (f) and point (3) of Annex II to this Regulation.

The methodologies referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall be drawn up in line with the principles laid down in Annex V, shall be based on common assumptions allowing for project comparison, and shall be consistent with the Union’s 2030 targets for energy and climate and its 2050 climate neutrality objective, as well as with the rules and indicators set out in Annex IV.

The methodologies referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall be applied for the preparation of each subsequent Union-wide ten-year network development plans developed by the ENTSO for Electricity pursuant to Article 30 of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 or the ENNOH pursuant to Article 60 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1789.

By 24 April 2023, the ENTSO for Electricity shall publish and submit to Member States, the Commission and the Agency its consistent single sector draft methodology after gathering input from the relevant stakeholders during the consultation process referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article. Any methodology for an energy system-wide hydrogen cost-benefit analysis developed by the ENTSO for Gas by 1 September 2024 shall be approved in accordance with process laid down in this Article. By 1 December 2025, the ENNOH shall publish and submit to Member States, the Commission and the Agency its consistent single sector draft methodology after gathering input from the relevant stakeholders during the consultation procedure pursuant to Article 61(3), point (d), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1789.

2.   Prior to submitting their respective draft methodologies to the Member States, the Commission and the Agency in accordance with paragraph 1, the ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH shall publish preliminary draft methodologies and conduct an extensive consultation process and seek recommendations from Member States and, at least, the organisations representing all relevant stakeholders, including the European entity for distribution system operators established pursuant to Article 52(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 (the “EU DSO entity”), associations involved in electricity, natural gas and hydrogen markets, heating and cooling, carbon capture and storage and carbon capture and utilisation stakeholders, independent aggregators, demand-response operators, organisations involved in energy efficiency solutions, energy consumer associations, civil society representatives and, where it is considered to be appropriate, the national regulatory authorities and other national authorities.

Within three months of publication of the preliminary draft methodologies under the first subparagraph, any stakeholder referred to in that subparagraph may submit a recommendation.

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change established under Article 10a of Regulation (EC) No 401/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (*5) may, on its own initiative, submit an opinion to the draft methodologies.

Where applicable, Member States, and stakeholders referred to in the first subparagraph shall submit and make publicly available their recommendations and the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change shall submit and make publicly available its opinion to the Agency and, as applicable, to the ENTSO for Electricity or the ENNOH.

The consultation process shall be open, timely and transparent. The ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH shall prepare and make public a report on the consultation process.

The ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH shall provide reasons where they have not, or have only partly, taken into account the recommendations from Member States or the stakeholders, as well as from national authorities, or the opinion of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change.

3.   Within three months of receipt of the draft methodologies together with the input received in the consultation process and the report on the consultation, the Agency shall provide an opinion to the ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH. The Agency shall notify its opinion to the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENNOH, the Member States, and the Commission and publish it on its website.

4.   Within three months of receipt of the draft methodologies, Member States may deliver their opinions to the ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH and the Commission. To facilitate the consultation, the Commission may organise specific meetings of the Groups to discuss the draft methodologies.

5.   Within three months of receipt of the opinions of the Agency and Member States, as referred to in paragraphs 3 and 4, the ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH shall amend their respective methodologies to fully take into account the opinions of the Agency and the Member States and submit them together with the opinion of the Agency to the Commission for its approval. The Commission shall issue its decision within three months of submission of the methodologies by the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH, respectively.

6.   Within two weeks of the approval by the Commission in accordance with paragraph 5, the ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH shall publish their respective methodologies on their websites. They shall publish the corresponding input data and other relevant network, load flow and market data in a sufficiently accurate form subject to restrictions under national law and relevant confidentiality agreements. The Commission and the Agency shall ensure the confidential treatment of the data received by them and by any party that carries out analytical work on the basis of those data on their behalf.

7.   The methodologies shall be updated and improved regularly following the procedure described in paragraphs 1 to 6. In particular, they shall be amended after submission of the energy network and market model referred to in paragraph 10. The Agency, on its own initiative, or upon a duly reasoned request by national regulatory authorities or stakeholders, and after formally consulting the organisations representing all relevant stakeholders referred to in paragraph 2, first subparagraph, and the Commission, may request such updates and improvements, providing reasons and a timetable. The Agency shall publish the requests by national regulatory authorities or stakeholders and all relevant non-commercially sensitive documents leading to a request from the Agency for an update or improvement.

8.   For projects falling under the energy infrastructure categories set out in point (1)(c) and (e) and in points (2), (4) and (5) of Annex II, the Commission shall ensure the development of methodologies for a harmonised energy system-wide cost-benefit analysis at Union level. Those methodologies shall be compatible in terms of benefits and costs with the methodologies developed by the ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH. The Agency, with the support of national regulatory authorities, shall promote the consistency of those methodologies with the methodologies elaborated by ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH. The methodologies shall be developed in a transparent manner, including extensive consultation of Member States and of all relevant stakeholders.

9.   Every three years, the Agency shall establish and publish a set of indicators and corresponding reference values for the comparison of unit investment costs for comparable projects of the energy infrastructure categories included in Annex II. Project promoters shall provide the requested data to the national regulatory authorities and to the Agency.

The Agency shall publish the first indicators for the infrastructure categories set out in points (1), (2) and (3) of Annex II, by 24 April 2023, to the extent that data is available to calculate robust indicators and reference values. Those reference values may be used by the ENTSO for Electricity and the ENNOH for the cost-benefit analyses carried out for subsequent Union-wide ten-year network development plans.

The Agency shall publish the first indicators for the energy infrastructure categories set out in points (4) and (5) of Annex II, by 24 April 2025.

10.   By 31 October 2025, following an extensive consultation process of stakeholders referred to in paragraph 2, first subparagraph, the ENTSO for Electricity, ENTSO for Gas, and the ENNOH shall jointly submit to the Commission and the Agency a consistent and progressively integrated model that will provide consistency between single sector methodologies on the basis of common assumptions including electricity, natural gas and hydrogen transmission infrastructure as well as natural gas storage facilities, liquefied natural gas and electrolysers, covering the energy infrastructure priority corridors and areas set out in Annex I drawn up in line with the principles laid down in Annex V.

11.   The model referred to in paragraph 10 shall cover at least the relevant sectors’ interlinkages at all stages of infrastructure planning, specifically scenarios, technologies and spatial resolution, infrastructure gaps identification in particular with respect to cross-border capacities, and projects assessment.

12.   After approval of the model referred to in paragraph 10 by the Commission in accordance with the procedure set out in paragraphs 1 to 5, it shall be included in the methodologies referred to in paragraph 1, that shall be amended accordingly.

13.   At least every five years, starting from its approval in accordance with paragraph 10, and more frequently where necessary, the model and the consistent single sector cost-benefit methodologies shall be updated in accordance with the procedure referred to in paragraph 7.

14.   Until 1 January 2027, this Article applies subject to the transitional provisions set out in Article 61 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1789.

1.   By 24 January 2023, the Agency, after conducting an extensive consultation process involving the Commission, the Member States, the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas, the EU DSO entity and at least the organisations representing associations involved in electricity, natural gas and hydrogen markets, heating and cooling, carbon capture and storage and carbon capture and utilisation stakeholders, independent aggregators, demand-response operators, organisations involved in energy efficiency solutions, energy consumer associations and civil society representatives, shall publish the framework guidelines for the joint scenarios to be developed by the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH. Those framework guidelines shall be regularly updated as found necessary. The consultation process for any update of the framework guidelines shall also involve the ENNOH.

The framework guidelines referred to in the first subparagraph shall establish criteria for a transparent, non-discriminatory and robust development of scenarios taking into account best practices in the field of infrastructures assessment and network development planning. The framework guidelines shall also aim to ensure that the underlying ENTSO for Electricity, ENTSO for Gas and ENNOH scenarios are fully in line with the energy efficiency first principle and with the Union’s 2030 targets for energy and climate and its 2050 climate neutrality objective and shall take into account the latest available Commission scenarios, as well as, when relevant, the national energy and climate plans.

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change may, on its own initiative, provide input on how to ensure compliance of scenarios with the Union’s 2030 targets for energy and climate and its 2050 climate neutrality objective. The Agency shall take duly into account that input in the framework guidelines referred to in the first subparagraph.

The Agency shall provide reasons where it has not, or has only partly, taken into account the recommendations from Member States, stakeholders and the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change.

2.   The ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall follow the Agency’s framework guidelines when developing the joint scenarios to be used for the Union-wide ten-year network development plans.

The joint scenarios shall also include a long-term perspective until 2050 and include intermediary steps as appropriate.

3.   The ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall invite the organisations representing all relevant stakeholders, including the EU DSO entity, associations involved in electricity, natural gas and hydrogen markets, heating and cooling, carbon capture and storage and carbon capture and utilisation stakeholders, independent aggregators, demand-response operators, organisations involved in energy efficiency solutions, energy consumer associations, civil society representatives, to participate in the scenarios development process, in particular on key elements such as assumptions and how they are reflected in the scenarios data.

4.   The ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall publish and submit the draft joint scenarios report to the Agency, the Member States and the Commission for their opinion.

The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change may, on its own initiative, provide an opinion on the joint scenarios report.

5.   Within three months of receipt of the draft joint scenarios report together with the input received in the consultation process and a report on how it was taken into account, the Agency shall submit its opinion on compliance of the scenarios with the framework guidelines referred to in paragraph 1, first subparagraph, including possible recommendations for amendments, to the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas, the ENNOH, Member States and the Commission.

Within the same time limit, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change may, on its own initiative, provide an opinion on the compatibility of scenarios with the Union’s 2030 targets for energy and climate and its 2050 climate neutrality objective.

6.   Within three months of receipt of the opinion referred to in paragraph 5, the Commission, taking into account the opinions of the Agency and Member States, shall approve the draft joint scenarios report or request the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH to amend it.

The ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall provide reasons explaining how any request for amendments from the Commission has been addressed.

In the event the Commission does not approve the joint scenarios report, it shall provide a reasoned opinion to the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH.

7.   Within two weeks of the approval of the joint scenarios report in accordance with paragraph 6, the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall publish it on their websites. They shall also publish the corresponding input and output data in a sufficiently clear and accurate form for a third party to reproduce the results, taking due account of the national law and relevant confidentiality agreements and sensitive information.

8.   Until 1 January 2027, this Article applies subject to the transitional provisions set out in Article 61 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1789.

1.   Within six months of approval of the joint scenarios report pursuant to Article 12(6) and every two years thereafter, the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall publish the infrastructure gaps reports developed within the framework of the Union-wide ten-year network development plans.

When assessing the infrastructure gaps the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall base their analysis on the scenarios established under Article 12, implement the energy efficiency first principle and consider with priority all relevant alternatives to new infrastructure. When considering new infrastructures solutions, the infrastructures gaps assessment shall take into account all relevant costs, including network reinforcements.

The infrastructures gaps assessment shall, in particular, focus on those infrastructure gaps potentially affecting the fulfilment of the Union’s 2030 climate and energy targets and its 2050 climate neutrality objective.

Prior to publishing their respective reports, the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall conduct an extensive consultation process involving all relevant stakeholders, including the EU DSO entity, associations involved in electricity, natural gas and hydrogen markets, heating and cooling, carbon capture and storage and carbon capture and utilisation stakeholders, independent aggregators, demand-response operators, organisations involved in energy efficiency solutions and, energy consumer associations, civil society representatives, the Agency and all the Member States’ representatives that are part of the relevant energy infrastructure priority corridors that are set out in Annex I.

2.   The ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall submit their respective draft infrastructure gaps report to the Agency and the Commission and Member States for their opinion.

3.   Within three months of receipt of the infrastructure gaps report together with the input received in the consultation process and a report on how it was taken into account, the Agency shall submit its opinion to the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas or the ENNOH, the Commission and Member States and make it publicly available.

4.   Within three months of receipt of the Agency’s opinion referred to in paragraph 3, the Commission shall, taking the Agency’s opinion into account and with input from the Member States, draft its opinion and submit it to the ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas or the ENNOH.

5.   The ENTSO for Electricity, the ENTSO for Gas and the ENNOH shall adapt their infrastructure gaps reports taking due account of the Agency’s opinion and in line with the Commission’s and the Member States’ opinions and make them publicly available.

6.   Until 1 January 2027, this Article applies subject to the transitional provisions set out in Article 61 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1789.