17/09/2025

On 11 September 2025, the Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE) held a ConvERSE initiative dedicated to the theme 'Biomethane: Potential and the Road Ahead', with the participation of national and international experts. The current state of the sector in Portugal was analysed, and the legal and regulatory challenges for the development of this energy vector in the country were identified. This is fundamental for the decarbonisation of the gas sector.

The hybrid event had an online audience of around 250 people and around 70 people in the room. Pedro Verdelho, the president of ERSE, conducted the opening session, and Jean Barroca, the Deputy Secretary of State for Energy, conducted the closing session.

ERSE presented a summary of the 45 contributions regarding the regulatory challenges resulting from a recent questionnaire conducted among industry players. These contributions identified a set of regulatory challenges that will now be addressed by the regulatory working group on biomethane, which was created by ERSE.

These topics include many of the issues raised by participants in the ConvERSE session dedicated to 'Regulatory measures for the penetration of biomethane in Portugal', such as the distribution of connection costs, injection tariffs that reflect network operators' costs, and the sharing of road transport costs for 'virtual pipelines' and 'reverse flow'.

ConvERSE also provided an opportunity to learn about various international experiences in this area. These included the biomethane development model in France, presented by the regulatory authority CRE (Commission de Régulation de l'Énergie), and the model in Spain, presented by the distribution network operator Nedgia.

Also of note were the European regulators' reflections on the feasibility of biomethane injection and access to the wholesale market, published by the CEER (European Council of Energy Regulators), as well as the barriers and opportunities for biomethane access to the network in Europe, presented by the EBA (European Biogas Association).

Access the presentations:

Session 1: Biomethane Potential and Scale-up Pathways: European experiences

“Regulators' reflections on enabling the injection and access wholesale market of biomethane” – Markus Krug, CEER - Council of European Energy Regulators

“Barriers and opportunities for grid access in Europe” - Anthony Lorin, EBA-European Biogas Association 

 “French approach to biomethane” - Edouard Le Bret, CRE - Commission de Régulation de l’Enérgie

 “Barcelona experience” – Vicente Gramuntell Marco and Germán Medina,

Session 2: Regulatory measures for biomethane penetration in Portugal

“Summary of contributions on regulatory challenges”, Neuza Costa, ERSE - Energy Services Regulatory Authority

“Biomethane: Potential and the road ahead”, Paulo Almeida, Portuguese Association of Ceramics and Glass Industries (APICER)

“Regulatory measures for the penetration of biomethane in Portugal - Context and vision of the glass packaging industry” - Carlos Barranha, Association of Glass Packaging Manufacturers (AIVE)

“Biomethane: Potential and the road ahead” - Jaime Braga, Portuguese Association of Bioenergy Producers (APPB)

“Biomethane: Potential and the road ahead” - Nuno Moreira, CoLab BIOREF

 “Biomethane: Potential and the road ahead”  - João Conceição, REN Gasodutos