Aplikace nařízení Evropského parlamentu a Rady (EU) č. 2024/1787 na podmínky PZP Dambořice

Abstract

The bachelor thesis deals with the analysis of the requirements of Regulation (EU) No. 2024/1787 of the European Parliament and of the Council – on the reduction of methane emissions in the energy sector and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/942 (hereinafter referred to as “the Regulation”) on the conditions of underground gas storage facilities. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to methodically verify the applicability of the requirements of the Regulation, leading to the mitigation of methane emissions, and further to propose methods of monitoring methane emissions, subsequent quantification of methane emissions and their reporting. For the analysis, I identified the risk areas of possible methane emission sources of the Dambořice underground gas storage. The risk areas are divided into methane emissions from leaks from disassembled type of connections and other technical components leaks, methane emissions from direct venting and incomplete combustion, and methane emissions from standard operation of the facility. The risk areas analysed show many ambiguities in the interpretation of the Regulation as to how to specifically apply mitigation measures to individual risk areas that will lead to reductions in methane emissions. The unclear interpretation of the formulation is mainly due to the use of a general formulation in order to simplify the coverage of a broader scope across the entire oil and gas industry. The Regulation's formulation, by its general approach, fails to take account of the complexity and uniqueness of the technological processes and equipment used in underground gas storage facilities. Of these methods of measuring and quantifying methane emissions, optical gas imaging technology, with the consequent consideration of the time duration of emissions, is the simplest solution, but such technology requires high investment and operating costs and requires ideal ambient conditions for use. For risk areas, in situations that allow it, a calculation based on known parameters of the internal volumes of the equipment is used to quantify the volume of methane emissions. After evaluating the requirements of the Regulation in application to the risk areas of the Dambořice underground gas storage facility, I assume that compliance with the requirements of the Regulation will lead to a disproportionate to absurd administrative burden for the operator, especially in the area of the obligation to report detected above-limit leaks. And also, from those cases of venting that are standard operations of the facility for the operator. It can be concluded that more benevolent deadlines for reporting to the competent authorities will achieve an identical quality result. It is likely that operators of underground gas storage facilities will have to invest significant funds to install technologies that make secondary use of natural gas and avoid methane emissions altogether in connection with the adoption of mitigation measures. The outcome of the measures taken is currently unclear in some application areas as to whether, after considering all the resources invested in such measures, the effectiveness of the environmental benefits will be proportionate to the overall environmental impact. Taking into account the dynamics of the operation of the technologies and the number of technologies used at the Dambořice underground gas storage facility, the enforcement of the measures by the competent authorities will be the subject of intense debates.