The regulation of hydrogen infrastructure: new wine in old bottles?

In the first debate of the series, we will aim to tackle the fundamental question of whether the future hydrogen infrastructure will inevitably exhibit similar features to the natural gas and electricity networks and should be regulated in a similar way. In this context, we will try to address the following questions: Should regulation disincentivise parallel delivery networks, reserving a preference for existing TSOs to replace/upgrade existing networks or should regulation foster competing networks? Will the hydrogen network necessarily exhibit the same ‘essential facility’ features – i.e. that it not easily or economically duplicated and tends to be a natural monopoly – so that access conditions and tariffs need to be regulated? Should the regulation follow the same approach as for gas? Ex ante regulation as opposed to ex-post tariff control?