Grid Ready Forum: experts call for faster connection of biomethane to the grid

In the first half of April 2025 the European Biogas Association (EBA) organised the Grid Ready Forum, attended by representatives of policy makers, regulators and gas grid operators. The conclusions of the day-long deliberations, published on 14 April 2025, hit the heart of the problem: in many countries biomethane is produced or planned, but connection queues and procedures delay injection by even several years.

Recommendations of the forum

Participants pointed to actions at three levels:

• Governments and national regulators – urgent implementation of the right to inject biomethane from the 2024 gas package and development of guidelines on "reasonable time frames" for connection; adapting grid planning practice through zoning that links grid availability with long-term local biomethane potential.
• The European Commission – a leading role in creating renewable acceleration areas (Renewable Acceleration Areas) for biomethane, giving projects the status of overriding public interest and facilitating the exchange of experience between countries.
• Operators and authorities – mechanisms for sharing the costs of connections and grid reinforcements, and financing of investments such as reverse-flow stations (from distribution to transmission), grid interconnection and dedicated pipelines.

The article gives no figures on the scale of connections. The forum's conclusions are to be discussed at the Commission's Energy Infrastructure Forum in June 2025.

Why this matters

The biomethane market is limited to a large extent not by the availability of feedstocks but by infrastructure. Agricultural biogas plants are dispersed in rural areas, where gas distribution grids are low-pressure and summer demand is sometimes lower than production. Injection therefore requires compressor stations, reverse flow or direct connection to the transmission grid.

Significance for the industry in Poland

Polska Spółka Gazownictwa (PSG, the Polish gas distribution operator) declared in 2025 that it had issued hundreds of connection conditions for biomethane plants. The forum's demands relate directly to Polish problems: injection stations, direct pipelines (the draft provisions are in the Sejm) and cost sharing. For investors this is a pointer to design biomethane plants taking into account their location relative to the transmission grid and the possibility of reverse flow.

What next

The gas package requires transposition of the directive by 5 August 2026 – the moment at which national provisions on connection deadlines and costs may be made more precise. The forum's conclusions are to go to the Commission's Energy Infrastructure Forum in June 2025. For readers this means a need to follow work on Polish energy law and on the grid operators' development plans.