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Three questions to Ulrich Benterbusch, GASCADE
With the commissioning of around 400 kilometers of hydrogen pipeline, GASCADE is delivering a central building block of Germany’s hydrogen core grid. The new north–south axis not only marks a technical milestone, but also sends an important signal to industry and market participants. In the interview, the GASCADE managing director talks about the biggest challenges of the conversion, the importance of infrastructure for market ramp-up – and which political decisions now need to be taken.
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What was the biggest challenge in converting the 400 kilometers of pipeline to hydrogen?
Thorough preparation was crucial. This included comprehensive inspections of all system components as well as the development and training of new operational procedures for working in a hydrogen environment. Where necessary, we certified the components accordingly. Thanks to this preparatory work, the technical conversion went exactly according to plan. Over the past three years, the entire GASCADE team has done an outstanding job – only this made the successful implementation possible.
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What does the commissioning of the north–south axis mean for industry and market participants?
With the commissioning, a key part of Germany’s hydrogen core network has become a reality. The infrastructure is thus moving ahead of demand and creating investment security for upstream and downstream market stages. Very concretely, the north–south axis of Flow – making hydrogen happen gives industry in the eastern German states the opportunity to adopt hydrogen at an early stage and decarbonize their processes.
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Which political decisions are needed to ensure the further expansion of the hydrogen core grid?
We are on the right track – but the hydrogen market now needs clear political support and targeted financial incentives. The energy future is based on both molecules and electrons. It is therefore essential to remove existing barriers along the entire value chain and to jointly accelerate the market ra
