Commitment to Innovation

To aid in the transition, which will eventually be required by policy, we are focusing our efforts on four priority areas of research and development, with the support of the European gas industry.

1.- KEEP IT RUNNING

Build and operate natural gas networks and keep them running under optimum conditions.
Through development projects focused on obtaining better and more economic O&M activities on integrity and security of gas infrastructures.

2.- ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

Better energy efficiency and environmental efficiency.
Through the development of projects on the impact that gas activity has on the environment and the impact which environmental regulations themselves will have on the gas business.

3.- MARKET DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

Get natural gas networks to serve as the vehicle for more energy.
Through the development of projects based on new gas applications, both mobile and stationary, that increase the consumption of natural gas from the grid and new end uses of CNG or LNG so as to obtain new business models.

4.- FUTURE ENERGY SYSTEMS

Ensure that natural gas networks continue to be used in the future.
Through the development of projects based on the circulation of renewable gas (biomethane) and new gas (hydrogen) through natural gas networks, which guarantee future activity, will involve the development of “Smart Grids”, Power to Gas and “Big Data Systems”.

In this sense, year after year the R+D+i activity of Nortegas has grown and gained the trust of the gas sector, both nationally and internationally.

Nortegas’s participation in the following forums and working groups reflects the confidence placed in the company:

• – Since 2007, Nortegas belongs to the GERG, the European Gas Research Group (the 25 largest of gas companies in Europe are members). The company is a Board Member and has held the Executive Vice Presidency for the last five years.
• Also since 2007, Nortegas has been on AENOR’s CTN 181 Committee (Hydrogen Technologies).
• Since 2008, Nortegas has participated in the European Committee of Standardisation CEN TC 234 WG 9, ‘Injection of non-conventional gases into gas networks’. The committee has created two national Spanish standards.
• Since 2008, the company has been a Board Member of CIC-ENERGIgune, the Cooperative Research Centre on Alternative Energy.
• In 2009, Nortegas signed a Collaboration Framework Agreement on R&D&I with the University of the Basque Country. The agreement resulted in the creation of a Business Classroom at the School of Engineering in Bilbao, in which students in the final years of their studies design projects relating to the gas industry. The framework agreement was renewed on 22 November 2017.
• For the three-year term between 2015 and 2018, Nortegas is representing SEDIGAS on the Research & Development & Innovation Committee of the International Gas Union (IGU).
• Nortegas currently represents SEDIGAS-AENOR on the CEN/CENELEC, a European working group on hydrogen gas, called the Standardization Request Ad-Hoc Group (SRAHG).