In a panel titled “Natural Gas as a Bridging Fuel and Biomethane as a Renewable Gas of the Future”, Jakub Kowalski discussed new gas technologies and the future of such fuels with Katarzyna Harpak of the European Climate Foundation; Piotr Zawistowski, Chairman of the Polish Power Exchange; Leszek Manek, Chairman of PGNiG BioEvolution; Artur Zawartko, Vice Chairman of Gaz-System; and Leszek Wiwala, Chairman of the Polish Oil Industry and Trade Organisation.

During the discussion, the PSG board member stressed that natural gas would continue to be a key component of the energy mix for a long time to come.

 “We are witnessing what is happening in the EU, which has often stressed that natural gas is a transitional fuel, and time boundaries were put in place. It was planned that installation of gas boilers in new households would not be possible from 2029 onwards, but we are already seeing significant relaxation of these requirements in individual countries. According to Jakub Kowalski, the view that Europe is moving towards degasification may soon become a thing of the past. “We are convinced that this will be the case, as both individual and commercial customers want gas”, stated Jakub. “I am confident that EU officials will give in to this pressure and not impose a ban from 2029”, he added.

During the debate, Jakub Kowalski also emphasised the role of business flexibility and responsiveness to market changes. 

“Today, the biggest challenge is to be ready to anticipate what will happen in the market and be ready for sudden changes. We at PSG saw a very large outflow of residential customers last year, right after the war broke out, due to rising prices. And we began to anticipate in our strategies that we should definitely focus more on commercial customers. Today there are 2,600 commercial entities, mostly small heating plants, that would like to switch their coal-fired boilers to gas. And this is an important part of our strategy and what we want to do in the future”, he said. He added that there was a renewed increase in requests for connections from residential customers, and that talks were underway with the management of Orlen S.A. to increase funds to serve this market segment as well.

Jakub Kowalski also stressed that despite PSG's willingness to inject biomethane into the grid, the market still faced problems. 

“We are ready for biomethane, and we are preparing to make sure that all of our newly constructed networks are ready to handle the admixture of biomethane, pure biomethane, or the admixture of hydrogen to natural gas”, he said.  

“We have issued 115 conditions for connecting biomethane plants to the distribution network and have zero connected biomethane plants. These plants are being constructed; however, they are choosing other business models – feeding cogeneration modules, they generate heat for residents, but as of today are not interested in being connected to the distribution network. We are trying to change this state of things. This is not easy without a support system in the broad sense, without the effect of incentives, perhaps subsidies for such activities as injecting biomethane into our network”, Jakub Kowalski elaborated.