European energy system underprepared for Ukraine-scale attacks: NATO official

Europe's energy system is underprepared to weather the scale of attacks that have plagued Ukraine's energy infrastructure, according to a NATO Energy Security Officer.

"Ukraine was lucky to have lots of nuclear power and [an] overengineered system—we don't have that in Europe," Julijus Grubliauskas said Oct. 14 at the European Biogas Conference in Brussels. "If we suffered similar attacks, the consequences would have been much, much worse."

Russia has recently increased its targeting of Ukrainian energy assets, including massive strikes on the gas system in early October that resulted in "critical" damage to some parts, according to the CEO of state-owned Naftogaz, Serhiy Koretsky.

Further attacks last week targeted critical infrastructure and forced emergency blackouts across 10 regions, according to the Ukrainian energy ministry.

Beyond physical infrastructure, Grubliauskas highlighted the importance of institutional collaboration to navigate energy system assaults. "In Ukraine, the defense and energy stakeholders, they work as one team," he said. "We need to learn that because we still operate in silos. We have the energy bubble that works on energy things and we have the defense and security bubble. That needs to be solved."

While NATO countries have not faced direct strikes on energy assets as in Ukraine, recent incursions by drones and Russian jets into their airspace have raised tensions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Oct. 8 characterized the aerial incidents as part of "a deliberate and targeted grey zone campaign against Europe."

"This is hybrid warfare, and we have to take it very seriously," she said.

Grubliauskas said he expects Europe will continue to see more such "hybrid attempts" to test its readiness and energy security.

"We need to apply this wartime mindset also to the energy domain," he said. "We can no longer afford to treat these issues as separate."

Biomethane

Officials at the Brussels event positioned biomethane as an important fuel to support European energy security thanks to its localized and distributed production.

"This is maybe one of the few [energy] areas that Europe has still and can build on and have some muscle to build the future energy security and also industrial power," Grubliauskas said.

He stressed the importance of boosting energy self-sufficiency for defense. "We need to power our factories that can make ships and fighter jets and tanks and ammunition; so, we need a lot of local supplies," he said. "Every little bit that comes, including from biogas, is a big boost to energy security."

Decentralization also makes biomethane attractive from a security perspective, according to Lucie Boost, secretary general of Gas Infrastructure Europe.

She pointed to how renewables have supported Ukraine's energy resilience amid Russian strikes. "We could have the same situation with biomethane," she said at the conference.

European biomethane installed capacity had reached 5.6 Bcm/year from some 1,450 plants by the end of 2024, a 22% rise from 4.6 Bcm/year installed in 2022, according to S&P Global Energy data.

Platts, part of Energy, assessed the Dutch spot unsubsidized waste biomethane guarantees of origin price at Eur43.025/MWh on Oct. 13.