EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESENTS REPOWEREU PLAN
Policy and Regulatory and Energy, Infrastructure, and Resources Alert
By: Tariq A. Fedda, Miguel A. Caramello Alvarez, Giovanni Campi, Inês S. Mendes, Paula Esteban Gomez
The European Commission (the Commission) presented on 18 May 2022 details of its plan to repower Europe and to reduce, and ultimately end, Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels (the REPowerEU Plan or the Plan)1 that was announced on 8 March 2022.
It aims to do this with three pillars: energy conservation; diversifying supplies; and quickly substituting fossil fuels by accelerating Europe’s clean energy transition, all while smartly combining investments and reforms.
The Plan acknowledges that the shift away from Russian fossil fuels will also require targeted investments for security of supply in gas infrastructure and very limited changes to current oil infrastructure, alongside large-scale investments in the electricity grid and an EU-wide hydrogen backbone. As such, the different elements of the Plan, which comprise a series of proposals, communications and guidance documents, will be of interest to anyone participating in the energy markets in Europe, including developers of renewable and conventional energy projects, buyers and sellers of commodities, and even households.