Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Market Package: Interview with Kitti Nitray

Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Market Package: Interview with Kitti Nitray

good afternoon everybody we are very pleased to have today with us Kitty n she’s the head of unit uh for the carbonization and sustainability of energy sources at the European commission’s DG energy many thanks for being with us thanks for inviting me we are going to have a very interesting conversation about one of probably the biggest Novelties that we are seeing these days in regulatory terms Regulatory and policy terms the hydrogen and the carbonized gas markets packet has been approved right today by the Parliament and we’ll see the light very soon so it’s the first time that terms like renewable hydrogen are really entering into regulation for Europe it’s a an absolute first time so what is actually um going to change what are we going to see changing and uh what do you think are the main Novelties of this package so I mean we’re very excited that uh now what we have been working on for the past actually four years is uh is happening it’s in the light of the day and what I find is very Innovative in this package is first of all all the hydrogen Market rules so hydrogen is a new energy carrier that is is going to be very important to achieve climate neutrality and for decarbonization and we were trying to put in place a framework that that is comprehensive to facilitate hydrogen entering the market and to fulfill its purpose purp of decarbonizing those sectors where which are hard to Electrify and which are still need to be decarbonized in order to achieve climate neutrality so with this package we managed to complete this framework by adding the rules for hydrogen markets for the future so how hydrogen networks need to be operated how hydrogen can be traded so that uh it can fulfill its purpose in decarbonization so that I would consider the most Innovative part in the package and definitely very necessary for hen Market to develop but then of course we have other parts in the package because as we know that for full decarbonization we need molecules also in the future and we will need also methane based molecules we also updated the market rules in order to have to facilitate renewable methane based molecules such as biomethane to enter the gas grids and to replace fossil gas in the longer term um we also updated the consumer rules consumer protection rules in in order to give the same level of protection to gas consumers as we are already giving to electricity consumers and then of course between the time when we proposed the package and between the time when it started negotiations uh the word has Chang changed yes exactly because we had this unjustified aggression of Russian Russia on Ukraine and this has changed our secutive supply situation so we also integrated in this longer term framework work uh a strengthening of the security of supply and especially the solidarity provisions and also the new feature of demand aggregation that has been tested under the emergency regulations we included it in an adjusted form for the longer term framework and as regards hydrogen we included a pilot mechanism that should facilitate the scaling up of the hydrogen Market wow it sounds really comprehensive and it’s somehow a package which is built on solid grounds you know like um coming from the past because at the end of the day the gas directive the gas regulation are the ones on which the the whole uh system based on natural gas um was um so it’s basically an updating these rules as to look towards the future and make sure that uh a different scenario can actually be implemented so congratulations for the achievement of really today so we’re really on time with this interview um so I I wanted to ask you uh what can regulation do to support the integration of these uh renewable and low carbon gases into the system we know that infrastructure is and will be fundamental um how do you see the role of regulators and regulation in General on this well of course very important so we we know that um that a stable regulative framework is very important for Investments to happen so Market players need to know what are the rules of the game in order to reliably be able to take investment decisions I would still distinguish the hydrogen P of the package from the methane based part on the package because the rules are slightly different so when it comes to hydrogen in particular we are dealing with an Emerging Market we are dealing with a nent market where today there is hardly any renewable hydrogen uh being produced let alone being traded so this is a market that will develop over time that needs to develop over time in order to drive the carbonization in industry in certain areas of Transport so until that happens we wanted to leave flexibility for various regulatory models to to emerge but we also wanted to give certainty and stability about the longer term we did not want to have to adjust expost the rules of the game creating this creating this potential uncertainties in the regulatory framework so we leave more leeway and flexibility until 2033 and then as of 2033 the full regulatory regime kicks in so this I think was a very important feature of the package to really uh reflect the inent nature of the hydrogen market for some flexibility indeed which is uh which was I think one of the um a very effective response to the big dilemma that we we’ve been discussing already for a couple of years how to um put forward you know know the the right basis for a market to develop without coming up with too stringent regulation which is uh something that lots of regulators have been struggling about yeah thank you so much uh I have one final question regarding the package um you um already mentioned that the proposal of the commission for this package dates back to 2021 spring if I remember correctly or summer December December okay thank you very much so uh at that time the uh big crisis had literally just started um and more features needed to be taken into account and like the whole agenda had a switch a temporary switch in priorities security of Supply suddenly um became the priority number one for those very critical months obviously um so now the emergency it we can say is uh almost over or anyway we’re much better off compared to those times um uh how do you think this package can contribute to security of Supply um and the actually what will be or could be the new challenges for security of supply for Europe let’s start Maybe by by the emergency measures that have been tabled and agreed in order to deal with the acute phases of the crisis um those we we we used to to learn the lessons from them so so demand aggregation and Joint purchasing was one of these emergency measures that we had the occasion to test during the the acute phases of the crisis and we saw that it could work so what we wanted to do is to leave open the possibility to use these mechanisms not exactly in the same form because of course the crisis is one thing the longer term framework is another one so we incorporated those in a slightly adapted manner for more stable conditions and included them in in the in the regulation and the same for solidarity measures so we learned a lot about solidarity and the solidarity agreements and we also seen how how necessary they are so we included we we strengthen the solidarity Provisions through this package also for the longer term but at the same time we are also starting a review of the of the secutive supply regulation in order to have a thorough review and to potentially if necessary table new proposals to strengthen further that framework in view of hopefully not but a possible future crisis okay very interesting indeed the package also includes this specific security of Supply Provisions good so it also incorporates some lessons learned as you said from the from the crisis okay um so kitty it’s really great to have you here and thanks for accepting to share with with us also a little bit of your personal history and career um for our lights and women initiative um so the gas sector as we know has been traditionally a male dominated one as we know very well so um I first would like to ask for some personal uh reflections of yours on how uh it was for you to develop a career in this specific sector and if you encounter some specific difficulties and how you overcame them if you have any good anecdote we are here to listen to you thank you so maybe my situation is slightly atypical compared to other women because when I was at high school grammar school I actually decided to go for mathematics and Sciences so at that time I went into career advice because I didn’t really know what to do with my future and I came out of that career advice convinced that I I need to do sciences what I didn’t realize back then but we what became very clear in the beginning of the year that we were three women in the class so three girls for like 20 boys so the gender balance in my class of mathematics Applied Mathematics and Sciences was not exactly um very balanced so but in a way that has forged me to to live and to thrive even in male dominated environment so it it was a very strong life lesson which means that I wasn’t exactly scared to go for the energy sector based on gender balance grounds um but I also need to say that when I then started my career I never really felt any negative U or difficulties from negative impacts or difficulties based on my gender because I felt that especially in the beginning of my career um I felt treated exactly the same way like like any other colleague would be however when the when once I started gaining experience and once I started becoming maybe more eligible to Promotions it’s I think that’s where there was the first time in my life seeing that maybe women are not always stated exactly the same way as men are and I’m going to give the concrete example or anecdote of my first director when I was in the European commission uh he was an excellent uh person yet when we would be sitting around in meetings or or or chatting then he would turn to my mail colleagues and and would say things like the day when you will become head of unit the day when you will become director this and this and that and never looking at he never said it to me or to any other of the female colleagues and this is when I understood the concept of gender bias I’ve never faced it before never seen it before but that’s when it struck me for the first time so before I was never really in favor of female quotas because I always felt I I you know do it naturally exactly everything was based on marriage I felt I was treated the same way based on my merits but then the closer you get to the possible promotions that’s where you realize that there was a gender bias and I’m speaking about was because I think I mean when I started my career that’s so already now 70 years ago in the commission and I’ve worked before so a lot of things have changed ever since so I must say that right now for the better exactly for the better so right now in the European commission I do not feel in any way negatively discriminated based on my gender I feel that I’m treat I’m being treated based on my mer merits and of course we meanwhile have not only a very strong female leadership in theg energy but also a very or a rather well balanced gender balanced management uh team as such so I’m happy to say that at least within the commission and within DG energy the things are going very well but I am actually very much aware that this is not the case everywhere H and that a lot of work needs to be done um so I’m encouraging every colleague who’s working in the equality Network in order to to really help um help to to bring this change about also in the energy sector at a broader do you I think that this change and this Improvement actually in gender balance um is helping the sector the gas sector in particular moving forward and if so why how I am convinced that it does I mean I’m convinced that in general gender balance helps every sector it’s because uh women are a very important part of society and um you need just a lot of different ideas no matter where it comes from to to come up with even better things so I think that gender balance helps every sector in any way now especially in the gas sector as you said it’s still very male dominated I do remember my first gas conference we were like hardly like one or two women in in the room um this is changing luckily as well but it’s still I mean women are still very strongly underrepresented so just by merely increasing the share of women around the table in the discussions it will bring in it will harness all the wonderful creative ideas that we women can can bring to the table but also the often longer term Focus uh on sustainability that women can bring to the table diversity can only improve the dialogue no with different perspectives any type of diversity we think about exctly wonderful so we close with um a final uh uh wish from your side if there’s any particular message or encouragement you want to give to uh women who um are interested in working in in our sector but maybe they feel a bit um afraid uh or you know like what what suggestion would you would you give to them what I tell my female colleagues very often is dare just don’t put limits to yourself we women we often have this tendency to to doubt about ourselves to question whether we are good enough or or or to question whether it’s appropriate to ask for something I observe that men do not very often have that and me being forged also in a male-dominated environment I didn’t have that so but I see it in other other women and and I don’t really understand it because I never had it but this would be my advice to really just you need to defend your own interests you need to DARE asking for the things that want you need to DARE speak in your mind and then it will be it will be clearer of what we need as well because very often men may just not understand it so we need to we need to stay out right what we want to do and uh and then it will bring in uh a whole lot of change I think also in everybody’s mindset and hopefully bring about this transformational change wonderful thank you so much Kitty really inspiring thanks a lot

At a crucial moment for the decarbonisation of the EU gas market, we had the chance to interview Kitti Nitray, Head of Unit Decarbonisation and Sustainability at DG ENER. The interview covers the innovative provisions set to transform the gas sector, including the integration of ‘renewable hydrogen’ into the European framework. Listen and learn valuable insights into regulation’s role in facilitating the integration of renewable and low-carbon gases, and how recent geopolitical challenges have shaped Europe’s resilience. Moreover, in the second part of the interveiw, Kitti shares her journey as a female professional in the male-dominated gas sector, and the pivotal role individuals and organizations play in advancing decarbonization efforts. Don’t miss this engaging discussion on shaping a sustainable energy landscape and empowering aspiring female professionals.